Tagged: hotels

Tipping in China: When You Can—and When You Shouldn't

How much should you tip in China? In most cases, the answer to that question is whatever the Mandarin word is for jack squat. “In my experience, offering a gratuity has usually been…

Casino Giant Caesars Planning Non-Gaming Hotel in Arizona

Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment, the company behind the Caesars, Harrah's, and Horseshoe brands of casino resorts, is expanding beyond slot machines and roulette tables. Caesars…

Tipping in the U.K.: A Gratuities Guide for Taxis, Hotels, and Restaurants

For North American tourists in the United Kingdom, the primary tipping danger, as in the rest of Europe, is of overdoing it. Tipping a waiter 20% on top of your restaurant bill may be…

Floating Hotel Debuts in Edinburgh, Near the Queen's Old Yacht

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has been a yachtless monarch since the 1997 decommissioning of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, which was eventually sent to the Port of Leith in Edinburgh…

Tipping in Japan? Not So Much a Thing

Japanese codes of etiquette often strike outsiders as elaborate to a bewildering degree, but, fortunately for visitors, the dos and don’ts of tipping in Japan are pretty simple. In…

Tipping in Germany: A Gratuities Guide for Restaurants, Hotels, and Taxis

The German word for a tip is Trinkgeld. That translates literally to “drink money,” suggesting that in Germany a gratuity is considered a little something extra rather than a…

Watchmaker Shinola Is Opening a Hotel in Downtown Detroit

Detroit-based Shinola, maker of watches, fancy bicycles, and other luxury goods, is expanding into the hotel business. The 129-room Shinola Hotel is set to open in the company's…

What to Tip Waiters, Hotel Staff, and Taxi Drivers in France

The first thing you have to know about tipping in France is that customers do a lot less of it than in the United States. That’s not because Americans are more generous—it’s because…

The Trends That Will Shape Travel in 2019

This past year’s biggest travel trends—the rise in solo female travel and solo travel in general, the new emphasis on green travel, the development of cannabis holidays, an uptick in…

Underground Luxury Hotel Opens in a Quarry

Bringing new meaning to the term "money pit," the recently opened, mostly subterranean InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland is a ritzy, multimillion-dollar resort with 16 of its 18…

Resort Fees Have Spread to City Hotels Now: How to Get Them Off Your Bill

Resort fees are to be expected today, begrudgingly, at big-sprawling American resorts with pools, private beaches, and grandiose spas. These infuriating fees, which are added daily…

The Cartoon Network Is Building Its First Hotel

Listen up, fans of Adventure Time, We Bare Bears, and The Powerpuff Girls: The Cartoon Network is getting its own hotel. Developed through a partnership between the animated cable…

Colorful New St. Louis Hotel Wants to Give You the Blues (or Reds or Yellows)

"Got the St. Louis Blues," goes the old W.C. Handy song, "just as blue as I can be."Those lyrics take on new meaning at the Angad Arts Hotel, which opens this week amid the many…

Arthur Frommer: Prosecution of Fake TripAdvisor Reviewer Raises Questions

The defendant, in a recent criminal prosecution brought in Italy, was a man who operated a company manufacturing fake hotel reviews. Presumably hiring excellent writers, he apparently…

The Boardwalk Is Back: New and Classic Atlantic City Casinos, Beaches, and Dining

Like the ocean it’s named after, Atlantic City has risen and fallen with the tides over the years. The New Jersey icon was the Gilded Age’s preeminent playground by the sea, the…

My Hotel Is Overbooked! What Did I Do Wrong?

First of all, you did nothing wrong. The hotel failed you. Sometimes hotels run out of space because of clerical errors, guests who overstay, rooms that need repairs, and other reasons…

Arthur Frommer: Climate Change Is Jeopardizing the Travel Experience

Is climate change for real? And is it having an impact on the recreational travels we undertake? If you would put that question to relatives of mine living in England, they would…

What You Need to Know About the (Likely) Cost of Travel in 2019

Will it be a happy new year for vacationers in 2019? Experts are predicting some price shifts. A number of factors should impact the cost of trips next year and beyond. If you’re…

Two Atlantic City Casinos Reopen Under New Management

Not long ago, Atlantic City seemed in danger of becoming a ghost town.A string of casino closures—five in two years, according to the Associated Press—came as a consequence of events…

A Return to Northern Michigan With No Repeat Experiences

I’ve always taken the stance that when you return again and again to the same place for vacation, you’re only setting yourself up for ennui. I figured there were a few exceptions to…

Where the Droids Are: Robots Take Over Duties at Hotels Around the World

You forgot your toothbrush. Again. And while it’s easy enough to call the front desk for a replacement, you’re wrapped in a towel, your hair’s dripping wet, and you don’t have a spare…

Renowned Ocean Liner Reborn as Floating Hotel in Dubai

The retired Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner, which the Cunard Line operated from 1969 to 2008, has been transformed into a floating hotel in Dubai.Docked at the city's Port Rashid for a…

In New York City, Rapidly Shifting Hotel Prices, Shorter Dining Hours, and More

Every year at this time, I update the book Frommer’s EasyGuide to New York City. This involves spreadsheets of pricing, hours, and more, meaning that I’m easily able to graph the…

Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas Getting a Virgin Hotels Makeover

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is entering Virgin territory. The hotel—located just off the Strip on Paradise Road—has been acquired by the growing Virgin Hotels chain,…

Makeup Mogul Bobbi Brown Opening Her Own Hotel in New Jersey

Makeup designer and skincare expert Bobbi Brown is going from fashionable boutiques to her own fashionable boutique hotel. Known for creating a popular line of understated cosmetics…