Someone should tell the MTA that not all contract negotiations have to get serious after a contract has expired. Sometimes, they can wrap the whole thing up months before—and they can even include good news for employees. Take hotel workers, for instance. If their new contract is ratified on Monday (months before the old one ends) not only will workers start making more, but some of them will be getting outfitted with personal panic buttons—to try and prevent DSK 2: The Wrath Of Kahn, naturally. more ›

Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park start around $695 a night and can range up to $4,500. That may seem steep, but according to one maid, that price tag comes with plenty of extras, like parasites to relieve you of your blood free of charge. The worker, Rosanna Polanco, tells the Times that on Monday she was asked to service the room next to 1005, but she was not told what the problem was. Polanco says she only found out when she bumped into a worker from Ecolab Inc., which supplies cleaning products and pest elimination services. more ›

A cook at the Roger Smith Hotel in Midtown is suing the boutique inn for $35 million dollars after two employees dressed up as Ku Klux Klan members and taunted him in two separate incidents. Julius Jones, who is black, states in court documents obtained by the Daily News that a painter allegedly approached him last year donning a "pure white cone-shaped article on his head," and said, "Hey, look at me. I am the Ku Klux Klan." more ›

Seeing as there are no actual jobs available any more, New Yorkers have turned to the tried and true method of enriching themselves using the sheer brilliance of the city: real estate. Specifically, renting out their apartments as illegal hotels to tourists. "I'm an entrepreneur, and I saw this as another opportunity," a woman who rents out her Brooklyn apartment for $100/night tells the Post. "I've been booked for the past month and a half, save for a few nights." We'd like to take this opportunity to announce that a lovely broom closet in the Lower East Side that is available for $30/hour. more ›

Have you heard of this place Rockaway Beach? It's a magical oceanside fairyland that hipsters just uncovered and colonized with tacos and weird artist stuff. And while it spent some time as the next Williamsburg, it's already evolving into the next Lower East Side, if hotelier Sean MacPherson has anything to do with it. more ›

In the wake of several high-profile sexual assaults on hotel maids (remember this guy? And this one, too?), some hotels are now offering self-defense classes for their housekeeping staff. more ›

Working in the service industries is never easy—just ask some delivery guys—but it sure can be funny. Having seen our fair share of Fawlty Towers, we knew that hotels could be hotbeds of humor, but the truly absurd questions that appear on the Guests From Hell Twitter feed really hammer the point home: "Is there a 9/11 gift shop?" more ›

Tommy Hilfiger no longer owns his eponymous clothing brand—though he still is the principal designer—so now he's spreading out into non-clothing directions. First up? A hotel in the MetLife Clock Tower off Madison Square. Hilfiger and his partners are thisclose to buying the building at the foot of Madison Avenue—at 700" feet it was the tallest building in the world from 1909-1913—for $170 million dollars. more ›

Like Welsh musician Gruff Rhys (see video below), we happen to suffer from an acute case of Xenodocheionology...but who could blame us! Everyone knows that one of the greatest perks of hotels is all the sweet, bite-sized swag you get to stuff into your backpack at the end of your stay. Those mini shampoo bottles, the white slippers, and little bars of soap are the stuff dreams are made of. But it seems that hotels have started to catch on to the free swag train, and have started implementing ways of stopping you from taking their robes. more ›

The hotel sector in NYC has been relatively stable in the past couple years; despite our rudeness and the risk of being hit by something, 48.7 million tourists visited the city last year, spending over $30 billion on our junk and stuff. But the hotel industry might be facing an insurrection of sorts soon: Marriott International has announced plans to discontinue offering adult movies in their new hotel rooms, and eventually, from all their thousands of hotel. more ›

Upper West Side residents are up in arms over the forthcoming homeless invasion of Manhattan, and they're not just going to sit complacently and watch their change and their sidewalks disappear. Concerned residents packed into a meeting last night at Community Board 7 to protest a planned homeless facility on West 94th Street, which they believe could be the tipping point that turns the Upper West Side into San Francisco. "It feels like a recurring nightmare to many of us. You're trying to convert it back to the 1970s," said Amanda Larrick, according to DNAinfo. Get out your tiny violins, because we're gonna have us a hoedown! more ›

Oh sure, NYC taxi drivers may occasionally crash through a coffee shop or cheat passengers over $1 million, but we know they know what they're doing. That's what a new unscientific survey from hotels.com scientifically proves once and for all! more ›

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo now has his eyes set on the city's top two hotel developers who have ties with a contractor recently accused of paying construction workers based on their race. Developers Sam Chang and John Lam— who've created thousands of hotel rooms—used contractor Michael Mahoney, who allegedly paid white carpenters $25/hr, blacks $18/hr and Latinos and Brazilians $15/hr, for a number of their projects. A District Council of Carpenters supervisor said: “Sheetrock, lumber, nails, cost pretty much the same for any contractor. But for these greedy people, labor is the difference and success comes off workers' backs." more ›

A housekeeping manager at the Essex House has confessed to the stabbing murder of Sara Bejjani after investigators say he attempted to rape the woman who had been residing inside the luxury hotel along Central Park South. 29-year-old Derrick Praileau had worked at the hotel since he was 17 and is described as being known for having a "flash temper." He told police that he showed up drunk before his 6 a.m. shift Saturday, used his key to get into Bejjani's 10th floor apartment and then admits, "I just lost it." more ›

A businesswoman from Dubai was found yesterday inside a condo at the Essex House, disrobed, with her throat slashed and a jumprope around her neck. 44-year-old Andree (Sara) Bejjani, president of Royal Investments, LLC, a real estate investment firm based in Dubai, had been staying at the luxury hotel on Central Park South since August. This morning cops arrested an Essex House employee, Derrick Praileau, but have not yet charged him. more ›

The NYPD held a briefing for hotels today, warning them that they are "vulnerable to a Mumbai-style attack," according to the AP. Last week's attacks in Mumbai included terrorists taking over two luxury hotels, and the NYPD "advised the security executives to train their staffs to be more suspicious of people loitering in lobbies and on guest floors, and of guests who book rooms for unusually long stays." An intelligence company reports that the Mumbai terrorists "closely followed" a foiled 1993 plan that targeted NYC hotels and used watercraft to gain access to sites. The chairman of the Hotel Association of New York's security committee (and executive director of risk management at the NY Palace Hotel) said, "There are of course certain inconveniences you can impose without scaring the life out of tourists and your guests. There has to be a happy medium and a balance to it." more ›

In recent years, as the dollar weakened, tourism remained high and helped bolster the city's economy. However, the faltering economy's repercussions are starting to hurt the hotel sector. The Marriott Marquis's general manager tells Crain's, "The financial markets have scared off a lot of different companies that we do business with.” And a budget hotel operator tells the Times, "There’s hesitancy in bookings. We hold our breath and fill up rooms at the last minute. Occupancy has been weaker in October, traditionally one of the strongest months.” The hotel industry is reiterating their opposition to any hotel tax hike, but given the hard times, it's possible the City Council might try to pass one--City Councilman Lew Fidler says an extra $70 million/year could be raised, "The idea of not reaching into the pocket of foreign tourists before reaching into the pocket of New Yorkers is offensive." more ›

If you watch just one Community Board Meeting video this summer, make it this one. Willets Point property owners who've been passionately protesting Mayor Bloomberg's controversial $3 billion plan to rezone the area (to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices and retail stores) have put together this video showing how the sausage gets made over at Community Board 7. Their gripping featurette focuses in on a contentious committee meeting that yielded a yes vote for the city's proposal, despite serious reservations voiced by board members. more ›

Angry opponents to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to develop 62 acres of poorly-maintained land in Willets Point, Queens disrupted a press conference yesterday held by city officials in Washington Square Park to tout the proposal. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point, led over two dozen protesters to the press conference, where they drowned out advocates for the plan, chanting “Justice for Willets Point!” According to the Times, the police refused to remove the protesters, telling officials they had a right to be there, even if they were being disruptive. more ›

New York City has a buoy helping it resist the receding economic tide: Tourists. In particular, foreign tourists who are relatively flush with currency that has strengthened against the American dollar. The city's marketing agency NYC & Company says tourism increased by one million visitors during the first quarter of 2008 versus the same period in 2007, and that 20% of those visitors arrived from abroad. And last year a record 46 million visited the city! more ›

Last year Mayor Bloomberg announced a $3 billion plan to seize 61 acres of the Willets Point district next to the forthcoming Citi Field in Queens through eminent domain, raze it, and construct 5,500 units of housing, a hotel, convention center and over 2 million square feet of office space, restaurants and retail shops. But business owners in the target zone have been fighting it, saying their ‘hood, dubbed the Iron Triangle for its chop shops and scrap yards, just needs repair, not total eradication. Sound familiar? more ›

Cartoons just got a little more real with The Three Thug Mice, an online series set in New York City. The 35 animated shorts follow the tales (and tails!) of three rodent crooks named Vic, Tik and Brik. Described as an "ongoing ghetto saga" set in some of the seedier sectors of the concrete jungle, the trio's home turf is light years away from Disney World. (Though that is the Hotel Chelsea in the background, which isn't so seedy; wonder if that frog jumped after BD Hotels took over management.) more ›

Even while targeted in the Troopergate scandal, State Senate leader Joseph Bruno was living in high style. The New York Sun is reporting that Bruno enjoyed a 3,500 square foot, two-story penthouse suite at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, just weeks before the legislature selected the hotel chain to construct a luxury hotel in Albany.

On November 30, the nine-member board of the Albany Convention Center Authority, which includes a member appointed by Mr. Bruno, voted to begin negotiations with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, of which Sheraton is a subsidiary, as operator of a 400-room hotel to be built in downtown Albany near the senate leader's district. more ›

Earlier this year, Mayor Bloomberg announced a major plan to transform Willets Point, the area, also known as the Iron Triangle, across from Shea Stadium, into a thriving area of new housing, business and hotels. However, some are pretty unhappy with the plans, which include replacing 250 businesses, and they've channeled their hopes - and a fair amount of money - to City Council member Melinda Katz. The Post reports Katz received $29,500 from "people... more ›

The sewer main break that brought 15-20 feet of water to 90 West Street's basement garage now means its residents will be homeless for at least two weeks. Electricity and other utilities to the building were turned off and it was thought things would be fixed in 2-3 days, but building management told residents that the "central electrical distribution room" was so damaged that it needs to be "entirely replaced." more ›

Yesterday morning's rain caused a recently installed sewer main to burst, flooding the basement and parking garage of a Battery Park City luxury apartment building. Water levels reached up to 20 feet. Not only were car owners greeted with news that their vehicles were either submerged or floating on top of sewer water, hundreds of tenants at 90 West Street were evacuated. Fire officials explained that, per WNBC, "rain flooded a re-routed sewer pipe,... more ›

Another over-the-top Coney Island development proposal is in the works. Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a plan today to build the nation's biggest urban amusement park there, including 4,500 residential units (20 percent are set-asides for low- and middle-income housing) and some retail establishments. The proposal basically spells doom for Thor Equities' $1.5 million Vegas-style entertainment complex that can only get built if the city provides zoning for it. Don't worry, the Cyclone isn't going anywhere.... more ›

A 19th century Greek revival building on Pearl Street – the road that formed the oyster shell strewn border of New Amsterdam in the 17th century – will soon be torn down, according to the A.P. The former warehouse at 213 Pearl was built in 1831 and was integral to what Ric Burns calls “the first district in the world devoted exclusively to commerce.” Once the city approves the permit, demolition could start as early... more ›