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Starwood’s Sheraton sequence is rolling out new booze menus and a booze tasting hour in a bid to give guest another reason to consort in hotel lobbies while boosting booze and food sales.

Unlike boutique hotel user Kimpton, Sheraton hotels won’t offer guest a free, full potion of booze any evening.

Sheraton is, however, going to give guest two-ounce samples of reward wines that perceived high ratings from Wine Spectator.

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TRAVEL NEWS:  Do we like to book hotels nearby Whole Foods?

Hotels that attend in Sheraton’s “Social Hour” will reason a tastings 3 to 4 times per week. In North America, dual of a wines they flow will reason a 90 or above rating from Wine Spectator.

To serve rouse a experience, a hotels will flow a booze into upscale Reidel stemware. Expect to ambience wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Northstar.

TRAVEL NEWS:  Landmark Vietnam hotel to open tip fort to tourists
TRAVEL NEWS:  Could we see some-more hotels implement film theaters?

So what do we do if we like a booze we sampled? Buy a glass, of course!

Along with a booze tasting program, participating Sheraton hotels are also rising a new “Sheraton Selects” booze menu, that will also enclose food that goes good with a wines. The menus will change by hotel, though underline wines deliberate good values by Wine Spectator. The repository reviews some-more than 15,000 wines any year in blind tastings.

The Starwood-owned sequence currently will announce that it’s rising a booze module in about 240 hotels around a world, or about 60% of a properties. Currently, these hotels offer a brew of wines with no sold consistency.

About a dozen Sheraton hotels will flog off a module subsequent week, including properties in Phoenix, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago; all participating hotels will have a booze module in place by Jun 1st, says Sheraton mouthpiece Nadeen Ayala.

Later this year, design to see a module adopted by a Sheraton New York, as good as properties in Seattle; Waikiki; Madrid; Edinburgh, Scotland, and Toronto.

It’s no tip that younger travelers – specifically, Gen Xers – adore to discuss while sipping and sampling opposite wines.

That’s precisely because Strategic Hotels is rolling out ENO booze tasting rooms – where we can buy wines by a flight, and epicurean cheeses and chocolates – in some of a hotels including an InterContinental, a Ritz-Carlton and a Four Seasons.

Does Sheraton’s module sound informed to you? It might. Sheraton piloted this in 19 hotels around a universe and resolved it was value rolling out. Nearly 95% of people who participated in a Social Hour pronounced they were expected or really expected to lapse to another.

Readers: What do we consider about this concept? Could it make we switch from a Marriott or a Hilton?

A new check suggests that meeting planners are confident that companies, associations and other groups will reason some-more business-related gatherings in 2012, a new consult says. That should be good news to hoteliers who have been watchful for remunerative meetings to lapse to before rise levels.

According to Successful Meetings magazine’s report, a IMEX Group asked 200 North American assembly planners during a initial entertain to report their mood for a latest “IMEX America Index of Optimism” poll.

Some of a pivotal commentary cited by Successful Meetings:

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• 88% of respondents pronounced they’d captivated new sources of business in a prior 6 months; that’s improved than a 77% from IMEX Group’s Jul 2011 poll.
• 79% reported feeling some-more confident than in a summer of 2011, vs. 66% final July.
• 53% pronounced there was justification that vast meetings and events are attracting incomparable numbers of attendees, vs. 50% final July.
• 49% pronounced a attention has gifted a worst, vs. 30% final July.

Last month, Host Hotels CEO Ed Walter pronounced that a expansion in Host’s hotels’ party business seen in a final 3 months of 2011 continued in a initial 3 months of 2012. “Several incomparable hotels gifted good increases in party activity,” he told analysts, attributing a benefit to increasing direct in organisation gatherings.

But not everything’s rosy.

While planners see some-more meetings being booked, companies and associations aren’t indispensably spending more, a check formula suggest. Just 38% of respondents assist spending per member was adult during these meetings – though 40% pronounced it wasn’t.

When it comes to concerns, assembly planners cited high gas prices, pursuit origination and tellurian mercantile uncertainty, as good as – to a obtuse border – November’s presidential election.

Readers: Comments?

Gaylord’s 2,000-room, glass-enclosed hotel and discussion core in suburban Washington, D.C. is display off a riverfront plcae with a new celebration venue option.

It’s a latest instance of how hotels are increasingly embracing a outdoor by adding seating – and, in some cases, a bar – to rooftops, terraces and even sidewalks.

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In a past week, Gaylord National Resort debuted a RiverView Terrace, a 15,000-square-foot special eventuality space along a Potomac River. The print above shows a area with a tent over a space.

At night, a space facilities thespian views of a nightfall and Washington’s monuments in a distance. Conference goers competence attend functions in this space, while others might attend a marriage or a concert.

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During a summer, Gaylord National puts on a giveaway fireworks uncover for guest over a Potomac River during 9:30 p.m, so if you’re inside, you’ll automatically have a front-row seat.

Readers: Comments?

Hanoi’s lush Sofitel hotel plans to open a secret, war-time fort to tourists on May 21, Vietnam’s English-language VietnamNet Bridge reports.

The fort – detected final year during a Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi – is believed to be an atmosphere raid preserve combined during a fight where American folk thespian Joan Baez once took preserve during a Christmas Bombings in 1972.

The fort has been recorded in a obsolete state, that we can see from a many photos VietnamNet Bridge includes with a story.

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Surprise discovery

About a year ago while laying substructure for a new bar on a hotel’s pool loll area, construction workers detected a opening to a trench, a story says. After digging down about 7 feet, they drilled into what incited out to be a thick petrify ceiling.

“They found an aged booze bottle, still-intact light bulbs, atmosphere ducts, graffiti and scary echoes of a fight that finished roughly 4 decades ago,” VietnamNet‘s news says.

The story quotes Kai Speth, who in Mar became a landmark hotel’s ubiquitous manager:

“In a hotel’s history, there is a story of a American folk singer, Joan Baez, who sought preserve in this fort during a Christmas Bombings in 1972, and who sang some songs beside a Vietnamese guitarist. We don’t know of any other hotels, in Vietnam or anywhere else for that matter, that confirmed a preserve for guest and staff.”

Hotel historian Andreas Augustin, of a Most Famous Hotels in a World, skeleton to sight 6 Vietnamese guides to lead tourists by a bunker, a essay says.

The hotel has invited several people who once sought preserve in a fort for an opening ceremony, according to VietnamNet’s report.

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The hotel isn’t only any hotel.

Opened in 1901, a Sofitel is Hanoi’s oldest hotel, a story says. Over a decades, it’s housed guest such as Charlie Chaplin, Jane Fonda, and writers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene.

Readers: Plan to visit?

We all know that location and price are among a biggest factors in final a hotel a traveler books. But what about supermarkets?

That’s right. Supermarkets.

A tiny series of travelers book their hotels by first figuring out where a Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or other specialty food store is located – and then finding a suitable hotel nearby.

Clearly, this isn’t a plan for everyone.

But, formed on a stories that several travelers and one hotel ubiquitous manager tell USA TODAY’s Hotel Check-In, it’s not as singular a plan as we competence think.

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People who find out a Whole Foods plcae in their finish before picking a hotel tend to accommodate one or some-more of a following criteria:

• Have food allergies or dietary restrictions, or transport with someone who does,
• Ordinarily buy organic/natural/specialty dishes during home,
• Will be divided for an extended duration and wish high-quality ingredients/takeout nearby.

Mary Pat Baldauf is a traveler who frequently checks Whole Foods locations before engagement her hotels – and she has an considerable reason.

“I’m a genuine geek when it comes to my transport food,” she says. “I’ve mislaid scarcely 100 lbs. eating clean, and we exclude to go back!”

Recently, she says she “was in for a provide in Madison,” Wis., where she had to attend a conference.

She not usually identified a healthy grocer in Madison named Fresh Madison Market, though detected that a store delivered food to a university where her veteran growth convention was being held. Given a convenience, she requisitioned a room during a university’s on-campus Lowell Center instead of an off-campus hotel.

“I placed my grocery sequence online before my trip, and a groceries were delivered to a motel an hour after my arrival,” Baldauf told me around e-mail. “As usual, we indispensable a few extras, though a marketplace was within walking distance.”

Responding to my Twitter exploration on a theme final week, Olympic bobsledder Elena Meyers pronounced that she finds it’s tough to find healthy food options while on a road. So when she’s in a ski review city of Park City, Utah, for instance, she typically books camp tighten to a town’s Whole Foods store.

Entrepreneur and revisit traveler Arash Shirazi says he infrequently books a W Los Angeles – Westwood hotel when he’s in L.A. for longer stays since it’s within walking stretch to a Whole Foods supermarket.

When on a road, he says, selling informed grocery equipment helps him settle a routine.

“Picking adult favorite equipment creates ‘familiar’ environment, like home,” Shirazi tells me.

Eating out each night also can get tiring, he says.

Frequent traveler Jay Furr, a vegetarian, says staying in hotels circuitously Whole Foods locations helps him eat what he likes, where he wants to eat – and also stay on budget.

“As a business traveler, we unequivocally hatred eating during restaurants by myself when everybody around me is with friends or family or, during least, associate co-workers,” Furr says.

“Also, I’m a vegetarian. So we spend a lot of my business food bill during Whole Foods since we can get things that’s vegetarian and pretty juicy to take behind to my hotel room to eat.

A hotel circuitously a Whole Foods will get my reservation scarcely each time, all else being equal.”

How to find hotels located circuitously a Whole Foods

How does Furr find these hotels?

Google Maps.

First, Furr – who works for a Fortune 100 association that has Hilton as a elite hotel association – checks Google Maps to see if a Whole Foods is located circuitously a patron he’s removing prepared to visit.

“Based on that,” he explains, “I’ll afterwards see what Hilton sequence properties are circuitously a Whole Foods.” Hilton is his company’s elite hotel company.

“If there are mixed Whole Foods locations, infrequently I’ll flip things, demeanour for a Hilton skill closest to a customer, afterwards see what a closest Whole Foods to that is. And if there’s not one nearby, I’ll repeat a routine with a second closest Hilton property, and so on,” he says.

In a cases where there’ s a Hilton Garden Inn or Homewood Suites catty-corner to a patron and Whole Foods is 10 miles away, he’ll collect a Hilton circuitously a customer.

“In a end, we generally breeze adult saving a lot on dishes since we can get all a food we need for 3 dishes in one selling outing and still spend reduction than we would for one dish during a place like a Bonefish Grill,” Furr says.

Hotel ubiquitous managers know how profitable it can be to have a plcae circuitously a Whole Foods or other specialty market.

Connie Armstrong, ubiquitous manager of a Homewood Suites by Hilton in Greenville, S.C. (one of a hotels that Furr likes to book), acknowledges that some business book her hotel since it’s within walking stretch to a Whole Foods market. To travel there takes “five mins during a most,” she says.

The Homewood Suites bedrooms have kitchens, so business like a fact that they can go to Whole Foods to emporium for mixture to ready their possess meals.

“If they don’t feel like cooking, they can go there and get a good, healthy salad,” she says.

The hotel and Whole Foods are located in a newly grown corporate bureau park.

Most guest know where a marketplace is, so they don’t stop during a front table to ask directions. But when someone does stop to ask for directions to a market, “Whole Foods is a initial one mentioned,” Armstrong says.

Readers: What’s your take on this strategy?

Gaylord’s 2,000-room, glass-enclosed hotel and discussion core in suburban Washington D.C. is display off a riverfront plcae with even more glass.

It’s a latest instance of how hotels are increasingly embracing a outdoor by adding seating – and, in some cases, a bar – to rooftops, terraces and even sidewalks.

TWITTER:  Follow USA TODAY’s Barb DeLollis
MORE ONLINE:  Hotel Check-In’s Front Page

In a past week, Gaylord National Resort debuted a RiverView Terrace, a 15,000-square-foot special eventuality space along a Potomac River.

At night, a space facilities thespian views of a nightfall and Washington’s monuments in a distance. Conference goers competence attend functions in this space, while others might attend a marriage or a concert.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:  Join USA TODAY’s Barb DeLollis on Facebook
HOTEL RENOVATIONS:  NYC’s Gansevoort gets punches of color

During a summer, Gaylord National puts on a giveaway fireworks uncover for guest over a Potomac River during 9:30 p.m, so if you’re inside, you’ll automatically have a front-row seat.

Readers: Comments?

Hanoi’s lush Sofitel hotel plans to open a secret, war-time fort to tourists on May 21, Vietnam’s English-language VietnamNet Bridge reports.

The fort – detected final year during a Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi – is believed to be an atmosphere raid preserve combined during a fight where American folk thespian Joan Baez once took preserve during a Christmas Bombings in 1972.

The fort has been recorded in a obsolete state, that we can see from a many photos VietnamNet Bridge includes with a story.

TWITTER:  Follow USA TODAY’s Barb DeLollis

Surprise discovery

About a year ago while laying substructure for a new bar on a hotel’s pool loll area, construction workers detected a opening to a trench, a story says. After digging down about 7 feet, they drilled into what incited out to be a thick petrify ceiling.

“They found an aged booze bottle, still-intact light bulbs, atmosphere ducts, graffiti and scary echoes of a fight that finished roughly 4 decades ago,” VietnamNet’s news says.

The story quotes Kai Speth, who in Mar became a landmark hotel’s ubiquitous manager:

“In a hotel’s history, there is a story of a American folk singer, Joan Baez, who sought preserve in this fort during a Christmas Bombings in 1972, and who sang some songs beside a Vietnamese guitarist. We don’t know of any other hotels, in Vietnam or anywhere else for that matter, that confirmed a preserve for guest and staff.”

Hotel historian Andreas Augustin, of a Most Famous Hotels in a World, skeleton to sight 6 Vietnamese guides to lead tourists by a bunker, a essay says.

The hotel has invited several people who once sought preserve in a fort for an opening ceremony, according to VietnamNet’s report.

The hotel isn’t only any hotel.

Opened in 1901, a Sofitel is Hanoi’s oldest hotel, a story says. Over a decades, it’s housed guest such as Charlie Chaplin, Jane Fonda, and writers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene.

Readers: Plan to visit?