Vacation Rental Law Hits Hawaii Hard—How to Navigate Tough Rental Regulations
Posted on 08/14/2019, 6:00 PM
Long before Airbnb was a twinkle on founder Brian Chesky’s browser, New York State had a law severely limiting short-term rentals. Called the "Multiple Dwelling Law," it has, in its many iterations, banned short-term rentals of less than 30 days in the state, including New York City, since 1929. The law was strengthened in both 2011 and 2018; today, it applies to apartments in buildings with mo...
How to Figure Out the Name of That Anonymous Hotwire Hotel
No need to agonize over clues like Sherlock Holmes to deduce the name of a mystery hotel in Hotwire's Hot Rates. These elementary tricks are all you need.
London Gets Its First Hard Rock Hotel
Posted on 07/24/2019, 12:00 AM
The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in London in 1971. But the city has never had a Hard Rock Hotel—until now. The just-opened 900-room Hard Rock Hotel London occupies the building that previously housed the Cumberland Hotel near the northeast corner of Hyde Park. That's about a mile north—in almost a direct shot up Park Lane—of the first Hard Rock Cafe, which, by the way, is still in operation. ...
Yosemite's Historic Names Restored: Company Holding Them Hostage Relents
Posted on 07/19/2019, 12:00 AM
One of the most asinine instances of overlawyering in a genuinely asinine age has finally come to a resolution. In 2016, the year the National Park Service marked its centennial, California's Yosemite National Park reached the end of its contract with Delaware North, the vendor that had been running the onsite hotels and services. The company was not rehired. In a fit of legal pique, Delaware...
Find the Name of That Secret Priceline Hotel with This Canny Tool
Priceline hides the identities of its best hotel deals, but there's a browser extension that pinpoints the property you're bidding on before you buy.
An Animal Rescue Group Is Opening Its Own Hotel—Humans Allowed
Posted on 06/17/2019, 9:30 PM
An animal rescue organization is opening its own hotel, which won't just be pet-friendly—it'll be "pet-centric," according to a news release. Set to welcome two- and four-legged guests as of August 15, Best Friends Roadhouse and Mercantile is a new, 40-room property with a desert-modern look in Kanab, Utah. The hotel is owned and operated by Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit no-kill resc...
Arthur Frommer: It's Smart to Make Sure Your Airbnb Host is at Home
Posted on 06/11/2019, 8:00 AM
A massive battle is being waged in courtrooms all over the world between supporters of short-term apartment rentals and cities wanting to put an end to those uses. The cities claim that such companies as Airbnb are worsening the availability of housing for permanent residents; that these permanent residents are unable to stay in a growing number of apartments illegally rented by landlord...
You Can Now Stay at a French Castle That Hosted Mozart and Voltaire
Posted on 06/04/2019, 12:00 PM
Some of the biggest stars in 18th-century European culture—including Mozart as well as Age of Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Denis Diderot—spent time at the estate of Baron Jacques Pineau de Viennay in the castle-packed Loire Valley southwest of Paris. Now you can stay there, too. Following a meticulous renovation, the baron's summer residence has been reopened as ...
A Website Called Fairbnb Has Flung an "Ethical" Challenge to Airbnb
Posted on 06/04/2019, 8:00 AM
Although it has successfully helped millions of travelers to find overnight accommodations in an apartment or home, Airbnb is still mired in controversy and fending off attacks. It has been challenged by (and remains embattled against) numerous city governments which claim that Airbnb has worsened the housing situation in their jurisdictions and reduced the available accommodations for p...
An App That (Almost) Guarantees the Lowest Hotel Rates
Posted on 05/31/2019, 7:00 AM
It’s said there are no guarantees in life. But does that apply to travel? For hotels, a relatively new app may offer the closest thing to a guaranteed low price that I’ve seen. It’s called Pruvo, and it promises that if you tell it your hotel price, you won’t be undercut. Here’s how it works. The consumer goes hotel shopping, using any online travel agency they like—Booking.com, Expedi...
A Bizarre Guitar-Shaped Hotel Rises in South Florida
Posted on 05/30/2019, 12:30 PM
Music lovers can soon live out any rock-and-roll accommodation fantasies they may have as the world’s first Guitar Hotel—a 450-foot-tall guitar-shaped building with luxury guest rooms—nears completion. The massive Guitar Hotel is part of a $1.5-billion expansion plan at the 15-year-old Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, which was previously most famous as the pla...
A Movie Studio’s Former Headquarters Is the Coolest New Hotel in Town
Posted on 05/06/2019, 6:45 PM
A historic, copper-topped building that once housed the Australian headquarters of Paramount Pictures has been turned into a boutique hotel in one of the hippest parts of Sydney. The 29-room Paramount House Hotel, which opened this spring, occupies space that was used for the studio's offices and film storage. Incorporating the building's original features with new touches, the interior has expos...
Arthur Frommer: Travel in Europe is Getting Harder, Yet Still We Must
Posted on 05/06/2019, 9:00 AM
Let’s be frank: Traveling to Europe this summer will be more difficult than in recent years. Which is all the more reason to consider, and then overcome, a number of obstacles. What has resulted in these problems? First, the initial cost of flying to various European capitals will undoubtedly be higher than before. That major champion of low-cost transatlantic air travel, WOW Ai...
This Website Gets You Free Room and Board in Many Countries, Says Arthur Frommer
Posted on 04/22/2019, 10:00 AM
When I first learned that a granddaughter of mine was planning to spend three months in Japan earning her room and board through work performed as a volunteer, I was concerned and suspicious. It was only after we had heard from previous volunteers of this sort that I grew calm about this partial use of her “gap year” from college. The organization that plans such volunteer work in countrie...
Arthur Frommer: The British Outlawed Deception by Hotels. Why Won't America?
Posted on 04/15/2019, 9:00 AM
A British organization that regulates hotels—it’s called the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)—has just taken steps to prevent U.K. hotels from using deceptive sales tactics. Its approach should surely be adopted by our own Federal Trade Commission. The Brits have won adoption of the new anti-deception rules by several gigantic hotel-booking organizations that publish hotel vacancies...
This Rolling Hotel Moves to Wherever the Surf's Up
Posted on 04/09/2019, 7:15 PM
A new hotel makes traveling among the beaches of southwestern Portugal super-easy—because it's the hotel that does the traveling. The Truck Surf Hotel is just that: a cargo truck that has been converted into a surf hotel. The double-decker B&B on wheels features a kitchen, living area, bathroom, and large sliding doors on the lower level. Upstairs, hydraulic arms extend to make space for fiv...
Arthur Frommer: Decent People Will Avoid All Contact with Brunei
Posted on 04/08/2019, 9:00 AM
It is highly unlikely that many of our readers will travel as tourists to the nation of Brunei on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea. The economy and currency of that nation are so strong (based on oil and natural gas reserves) that prices there are forbidding. Accordingly, Brunei doesn’t react to threats of tourism boycott, and enjoys very little tourism in any event. One recent visi...
Tipping in Costa Rica: A Gratuities Guide for Hotels, Restaurants, and Tours
Some tips on tipping to follow while checking out Costa Rica's cities, beaches, and jungles
When Should You Book Airfare and Hotels? A Huge Study Reveals the Current Answers
Posted on 04/03/2019, 1:00 PM
The Airlines Reporting Corporation’s annual Travel Pricing Outlook study (conducted in partnership with Expedia) arrived with very little fanfare this year. Which is odd—and not so odd. Odd because it is, by a factor of a gazillion, the largest study of the year, for the size of the numbers being crunched. And not so odd because this 2019 study, the fifth annual one, doesn’t really break much n...
South African President de Klerk's Retreat Becomes All-Inclusive Beach Lodge
Posted on 04/02/2019, 4:00 PM
The coastal retreat of former South African president F.W. de Klerk has been reborn as an all-inclusive, eco-conscious lodge overlooking an untouched, nearly 4-mile (6km)-long stretch of Indian Ocean beachfront. Set to open April 15, Lekkerwater Beach Lodge is located about a 3-hour drive east of Cape Town in a secluded area of De Hoop Nature Reserve, a landscape of sand and scrub between the oc...
