Iphone Hotels

Forget filling in room service forms or hanging do not disturbs signs on the door - hotels in the US are communicating with guests using iPods and iPhones, a practice that could soon spread to Australia.

Guests at the Malibu Beach Inn and the Sky Hotel, both in California, can order food, drinks, wake-up calls, spa treatments, concierge services and transportation, all from a special application on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

If they don't have either of the devices at check-in, guests are provided with a 16GB iPod Touch that has the "Hotel Evolution" application already loaded.

The application also allows guests - after logging in with their room number and security code - to look up information on shopping, nightlife and local restaurants, as well as check their messages.

There is an option to request DO NOT DISTURB, room cleaning, or additional linens, towels and toiletries.

Hotel Evolution's developer, Runtriz, said the system was also being installed in several hotels in Las Vegas, Orange County, Miami and New Jersey, but further details have yet to be announced.

"We would love to expand outside of the states to luxury properties in Australia but as of yet are not in discussion with any properties there," a spokeswoman said.

Hotels reportedly pay Runtriz $US10 per room for using the service but it is unclear whether this cost is passed on to guests.

This week Apple announced it was the third biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the world in terms of revenue, with the iPhone outselling BlackBerry handsets in the most recent quarter.

Its iPhone revenues of $US4.6 billion for the quarter place it behind Nokia ($US12.7 billion) and Samsung ($US5.9 billion) but ahead of Sony Ericsson ($US4.2 billion), LG ($US3.4 billion), Motorola ($US3.2 billion) and BlackBerry-maker RIM ($US2.1 billion).

In Apple's earnings call chief executive Steve Jobs hailed the result as a "milestone" for the company.

"RIM is a company that makes good products, and it's surprising after only 15 months in the market we could outsell them in any quarters," he said.

"If this isn't stunning, I don't know what is."

Starwood Hotels And Resorts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has cut jobs at its corporate headquarters in White Plains and trimmed costs across the company in response to a weakening economy and a slowing hotel business.

The company, which yesterday reported a 12 percent drop in third-quarter profits, did not respond to numerous phone calls inquiring about the number of jobs in White Plains that were eliminated. In a news release, the company said that it had made "significant reductions across several corporate departments" during the third quarter.

Last year, Starwood employed nearly 1,100 workers at the headquarters and a nearby office building on Westchester Avenue.

"While we can't control the economic environment, we can right-size our organization to offset the effects of slowing travel demand," Chief Executive Officer Frits van Paasschen said in a written statement. "Earlier this year we began a process to streamline our organization and reduce costs while continuing to invest in Starwood's future growth."

The company said it took a $22 million charge during the third quarter to cover restructuring costs primarily related to the job reductions in White Plains and the shutdowns of a vacation ownership call center and two sales centers. The company did not disclose where the three call centers were located.

Starwood added that it anticipates completing a review of "other functional areas" and implementing reductions in those areas by the end of the first quarter.

Starwood, whose brands include Sheraton, Westin and St. Regis, lists 155,000 employees at 936 properties in more than 100 countries.

Economically sensitive stocks such as hotels, retailers and restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the stock market's brutal selloff this year. A major worry is that consumers responding to higher gasoline prices, a weak housing market, job losses and record levels of debt may pull back on leisure activities, including vacations and hotel stays.

In addition, corporations also are expected to tighten their travel budgets with the economy weakening severely in recent weeks in response to the escalating financial crisis and credit crunch.

Starwood's net income totaled $113 million, or 62 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared to $129 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues fell less than 1 percent to $1.535 billion.

Starwood outlined a dismal forecast for the fourth quarter. It said revenue per available room - a common performance measure in the hotel industry - could fall by 9 percent to 11 percent at company-owned hotels in North America and 4 percent to 6 percent at its hotels worldwide.

Operating income in Starwood's vacation ownership and residential business will be down $50 million to $60 million during the quarter, according to the company.

"The near-term outlook for the firm is poor," Morningstar analyst Jeremy Glaser wrote in a research report. "Although we think this extreme trend will moderate somewhat, the next year will be extremely challenging for Starwood as consumer and business travel spending drops."

Starwood's stock has fallen 66 percent during the past year as investors cut their exposure to economically sensitive stocks. The shares rose 49 cents yesterday to $19.69 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. But they remain far below a 52-week high of more than $60.

Starwood got more bad news late yesterday when Standard & Poor's said it may downgrade the company's ratings because of worries about the industry's outlook.

Despite the economic uncertainties, Starwood is pushing ahead with new hotel projects.

Concord hotel project

Officials of Cappelli Enterprises Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to use local businesses for the construction of the Concord Resort and Conference Center, while also reassuring the public that the project will be all union, and utilize as many Sullivan County workers as possible.

Representatives from Cappelli Enterprises and Empire Resorts, partnering with the Westchester County developer on the Concord project, addressed these issues with a large crowd of Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce members at Monticello Gaming & Raceway.

Joseph Apicella, executive vice president of Fuller Development Company, a division of Cappelli Enterprises, detailed a pre-apprenticeship program that will target Sullivan County residents for construction jobs.

The new program will provide potential apprentices with trade assessments to place workers in a trade of their choice, paid on-the-job training, and, once they complete the class, a state certificate.

“Working with the agencies here in Sullivan County is going to be an integral part of we do because it’s so important for those permanent jobs, and the training that is involved to be able to fill those jobs locally,” he said. “Our management teams and providers and branding companies are not going to want to have a workforce that comes from three hours away. They are going to need a workforce locally.” The company is going to “be relying on you to help us train that workforce, recruit the workforce, and then put them on the job because goodness knows we could use jobs in this economy.”

Apicella also said that Concord Associates, the official partnership of Empire/Cappelli, will use union labor, as well as local businesses for supplies and equipment.

Though architecture of the $1 billion-plus project was slightly rearranged in the past few weeks, for what Apicella called “an efficiency move,” the Cappelli executive said the project will not be delayed, and is still scheduled for completion in summer 2010.

Aqueduct Casino Complex

After seven years of political wrangling and delay, a deal to build a casino at the Aqueduct racetrack is now in place.

Under a contract announced by the Paterson administration on Thursday, a Buffalo company will construct a complex featuring a 184,000-square-foot gambling floor and 4,500 video gambling terminals, multiple restaurants including one with a 600-seat buffet, at least 300 hotel rooms and a 60,000-square-foot conference center.

The Buffalo company, Delaware North, said it planned to start construction in early 2009 and finish the casino, its adjoining restaurants and the parking structure in about a year. The project will be completed in phases within five years, it said.

In its promotional material, Delaware North has boasted that the complex will be “all right in the heart of Queens,” a subway ride away on the A train. The track is in South Ozone Park just northwest of Kennedy Airport.

For the casino itself, gamblers should think more arcade than Atlantic City. There will be no blackjack tables with dealers, or roulette wheels. Instead the casino will have video-screen terminals that will accept money for virtual hands of poker and other games.

Delaware North operates a similar hybrid racetrack-casino — known as a racino — in Saratoga Springs. The company beat out two other bidders — the commercial real estate firm S L Green Realty, in partnership with Hard Rock Entertainment, and Capital Play, which had joined with Mohegan Sun.

State officials said Delaware North prevailed because it was offering more money in advance: $370 million for its license to operate the casino and entertainment complex.

“They offered the most money up front,” said John D. Sabini, chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. “And I think that’s important to the state because of the financial situation we’re in.”

In addition to the up-front payment, the state expects to reap more than $10.3 billion in revenue from the gambling terminals over the next 30 years.

Though the State Legislature has already trimmed more than $420 million in state spending this year, Gov. David A. Paterson said this month that the faltering economy had opened a new $1.2 billion hole in the budget.

After the Aqueduct negotiations hit a snag two weeks ago when Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to review the plan, Mr. Paterson and fellow Democrats accused Republicans of dragging their heels and delaying the start of a project that would create about 1,000 construction jobs at a time when employers in New York are shedding workers.

“This deal will provide a critical revenue stream — especially given the financial crisis that is battering our state and nation,” Mr. Paterson said in a statement,

The push to build a casino at Aqueduct began in 2001, when in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks the Legislature began passing laws that would allow for a major expansion of the state’s gambling industry.

In approving the deal, the state once again finds itself turning to gambling to strengthen its weakened cash flow. But with New Yorkers expected to spend less as the financial crisis expands, Delaware North’s president was asked on Thursday whether a casino could remain a steady source of state revenue during an economic downturn.

“Clearly the gaming business is not a recession-proof business,” the president, William J. Bissett, told reporters in a room overlooking the neatly groomed racetrack at Aqueduct.

“There is a large population that will have an easy means to get to this location to entertain themselves,” he said. “We take comfort that, even in a recession period, the fact that Aqueduct sits where it does in a huge metropolitan community buoys our confidence that we will be successful here.”

The project is expected to create about 2,000 jobs in Queens. About half those jobs would be permanent jobs at the casino complex once it is fully operating, and the rest would be construction jobs.

“The ultimate goal, of course, is not only to create revenue for the state but to create jobs,” said State Senator Serphin R. Maltese, a Republican from Queens. “So as far as economic development, I think you can put it in big letters: J-O-B-S.”

Mr. Maltese, who is locked in a competitive re-election battle that may decide which party controls the Senate next year, objected to the Delaware North proposal two weeks ago after Mr. Paterson and the Democratic-led Assembly signed off on it.

At the time, Mr. Maltese and other Senate Republicans said they were not convinced the plan included enough economic benefit for the Queens community. So the developers agreed to put more of their plans in writing, including the proposal for building the hotel and convention center and a community advisory board to inform Delaware North on their satisfaction with the development. In addition, the company agreed to open an office in the community that will make it more convenient for people to apply for a job.

High Point Market

You could sense the hustle of thousands of furniture buyers and sellers on the streets this week during the fall High Point Market.

You could also sense the worry attached to the prospects for the residential furniture industry in the face of what could become a deep national recession, on top of an already years-long slump in sales.

T.J. Stout, president of Archdale-based Carson’s, has been to dozens of markets in High Point on behalf of the company his grandfather, Carson Stout, started in 1944 — and he got worn out at every one of them.

“You go fast and furious for the first few days, then it gets slow. You start off thinking it will be a record market, then it becomes the worst one ever,” Stout says. “I don’t miss it one bit.”

He doesn’t miss it because as of this year, he doesn’t go. Carson’s has abandoned the residential furniture market entirely in favor of making furniture for hotels and resorts. The transition began about five years ago, and was complete this year.

The result for his firm: After watching sales slide from near $18 million a year in the booming 1980s down to around $6 million in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, slump and his work force fall by half, Carson’s should top $20 million in sales this year with a total head count across three corporate divisions (including a metal fabricator and a factoring operation) of 167 people in three Triad factories, and a client roster including Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and others.

His big concern right now is finding enough skilled, experienced employees to match his order backlog. He’s tried newspaper advertisements, the human resources departments of companies in the midst of layoffs and online classifieds site craigslist, with limited success at finding qualified workers.

“I guess people are just worried about the industry and going into something different,” Stout said. He’s hiring in every department, “and we may try just hanging a sign out front.”

You can’t blame the workers who made North Carolina the furniture industry’s home base for looking for new opportunities in a different field. Thousands upon thousands of jobs have been lost during the past decade, mostly among residential manufacturers who found more economical production overseas.

Scottsdale Hotel and Residences

When the W Scottsdale Hotel & Residences opens today, it will bring to Old Town three upscale bars, the Los Angeles-based, style-conscious restaurant Sushi Roku and 224 rooms with buzz-worthy design. But it also will usher in an era of $26 overnight valet parking and $559-a-night hotel rooms.

The swanky international chain is credited with developing the boutique-hotel market, emphasizing a hip, edgy vibe through innovative decor and splashy bars and restaurants. W Hotels are known to elevate the quality of nightlife where they open, and bar and hotel managers throughout Scottsdale have been preparing since Triyar Hospitality LLC broke ground for the W in 2005.

Neighboring Axis/Radius nightclub spent $1.5 million on a remodel in 2006 with the Starwood Hotels & Resorts-run property in mind.
The nearby Mondrian Scottsdale hotel revamped its pool, turning it into a Skybar similar to the one at its sister Los Angeles property, and upgraded Asia de Cuba's patio to increase the restaurant's capacity and year-round usage. Randy Smith, who owns the nearby, elegant SIX Lounge, has been working with promoters to elevate SIX's image and keep the right kind of well-dressed, free-spending clients in his club so it feels right for W guests.

But all this comes at a price. Just as its status elevates the cachet of adjacent clubs and hotels, the W's high rates are expected to lift prices for other Valley boutique hotels. Resorts have long been charging $500 to $600 a night for non-suites, but they also offer 27-hole golf courses, spas, fitness centers, tennis courts, restaurants, water parks and sprawling, manicured grounds. The W will offer just three bars, a restaurant, pool, fitness center and spa.

Laura McMurchie, vice president of communications at the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new hotel - with its sand-surrounded second-floor pool, its celebrity-favorite Bliss Spa and its proximity to nightclubs - is well-suited to Scottsdale's developing image as a hip vacation destination for the image-conscious Generation X traveler. And the W owners believe the market can support Los Angeles-level prices.

"They offer more of that urban, city-center style of property. You know you're going to have a built-in scene, a built-in nightlife," she said. "But you're also going to have . . . all the things you expect from a great hotel. Those prices are something new for this market, but the W has the brand power to command it."

The seven-story hotel cost more than $100 million to build, and owners pushed back the opening date several times because of delays caused by a lack of construction manpower and a jump in prices of raw materials, according to General Manager Leon Young. But the delays didn't dampen buzz. More than 6,000 people applied for 300 jobs. Sushi Roku is half-booked for opening night, with large groups and celebrity parties.

"Scottsdale is not only up and coming, it's also redefining itself," Young said. "It's taking more of a sophisticated turn, not being considered a retirement community but a very vibrant city with a lot of culture and art, and the W likes to be on the forefront of that cusp."

Although many Valley hotels are continuing summer discounts into fall to entice tourists, Young said he's not worried that the slower economy will hurt his hotel. He's confident the brand's cachet and the W's connections and programs such as the Whatever/Whenever service will be enough to keep the beds and bars full. For example, he says, if a guest is going to a concert, the staff will try to arrange for a backstage pass, an autograph session or other upgrade.

"That's not something we charge for," Young said. "It's about leveraging whatever partnerships we have."

David Morgan, general manager of the Mondrian Scottsdale, said the new hotel will be good for Valley tourism because guests will expect more with higher rates, pressuring nearby properties to elevate their level of customer service and improve their facilities.

"Scottsdale needed to move in a new direction with rates, and they're going to help us get to that," he said.

Morgan said his hotel plans to build a bridge over the pool in advance of its reincarnation as a nightclub. The Mondrian also is upgrading the hotel's event spaces, all to stay competitive in a market that now has two boldface boutique hotels within walking distance of each other.

The new W hotel features 18 condos and 224 rooms named on a scale from Wonderful to Fabulous. Jeff Low-designed suites are expected to open in October, ranging from Studio to Extreme Wow, the largest coming in at 1,540 square feet.

The design is conspicuously flashy. The porte-cochere is built under the pool, with four round ceiling windows offering a glimpse of swimmers above. Once inside, guests can grab a Blueberry Acai Martini in the Living Room lobby bar, lounging on lavender, faux-reptile skin seating. Or they can get dinner at Sushi Roku, which boasts teak ceilings and floors and a leather-tiled bar anchored by a massive $22,000 chunk of burled wood from Cambodia.

Bar general manager Dominic Scoles said the hotel's destination bar, Shade, and its pool bar, Sunset Beach, will target a customer attracted to Scottsdale for nightlife fun.

"We're looking to bring some quality new stuff to downtown Scottsdale and go after that upper-echelon client," he said. To do that, Scoles will serve Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label and Dom Pérignon champagnes by the glass and fresh-fruit mojitos muddled tableside.

"This is going to change the entire dynamic of Old Town," said Les Corieri of Evening Entertainment Group, which runs Axis/Radius and two adjacent nightspots.

"The amount of people they're bringing to that area is going to be over the top. . . . I can't wait."

Marriott International

As career choices go, the hotel business isn't one that will put new college grads on the path to riches. With few exceptions, new employees can expect an annual salary of less than $40,000, a figure that has barely budged in recent years. So when Marriott International visited the University of Delaware campus on a recruiting trip, it didn't wave a big wad of cash in front of Claire Pignataro. It didn't have to. It had already hooked her with something she considered far more valuable: a chance to help run a hotel.

A semester at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel, located on the Delaware campus, is required as part of the school's hospitality program. Pignataro, who was among the first students to work there, took part in virtually every aspect of opening the hotel, from developing marketing materials and designing weekend packages to even checking the legal mumbo jumbo posted in every hotel room. After graduating in 2005 and joining Marriott full-time, she entered a three-month management training program at a full-service hotel in Bridgewater, N.J., that put her through her paces again, including brief stints in the restaurant, food and beverage service, and front office. Knowing Pignataro wanted to be a wedding planner—and not wanting to lose her—Marriott gave her the next best thing: a permanent slot as an event planner at the Bridgewater property. "I was doing bar mitzvahs and weddings—all kinds of social and corporate meetings," says Pignataro, who is now in corporate sales. "You can do a lot of that within Marriott."

For companies like Marriott that need to win the talent wars without breaking the bank, opportunities such as those offered to Pignataro are rapidly supplanting pay as a way of luring and keeping the best new college graduates in the corporate fold. While the economy has taken its toll on middle management, many companies are continuing to hire entry-level employees—in some cases at a blistering pace. Even those that are hiring fewer employees for entry-level jobs are competing more intensely for the very best. While traditional perks such as pensions and health insurance still have their place, more companies are finding inventive ways to attract, retain, and motivate their youngest employees—using everything from work-from-home programs to faster promotions to financial benefits that kick in a few years down the road. Says Adam Kling, a workplace consultant with RHR International: "They're using those and other perks to help offset what you're seeing in your monthly paycheck." Or more to the point, what you're not seeing in your monthly paycheck.

No one recognizes the importance of perks more than Ernst & Young, where average salaries haven't increased substantially in at least three years. The Big Four firm still attracts more than 3,000 highly sought-after accounting students each year with extensive training and mentoring programs, performance bonuses, and the promise of face time with top executives—including an annual trip to Walt Disney World for all U.S.-based interns, where they get to mingle with the powers that be. It's perks like that, along with a recruiting machine in overdrive and near-certain advancement to a supervisor-level position in just two years, that landed Ernst & Young atop BusinessWeek's third annual Best Places to Launch a Career ranking this year, unseating rival Deloitte.