Choice Hotels to use Leo Burnett USA as new creative ad agency

October 7th, 2009 Soprano Beverly Sills' art, jewelry for sale in NYNEW YORK — The estate of soprano Beverly Sills is being auctioned in New York City. Items being offered Wednesday include art, photos, furniture and opera memorabilia.

October 5th, 2009 Hotels, other sites may house detained immigrantsWASHINGTON — Former hotels, nursing homes and other sites would be used to hold immigrants who are not criminals or violent as part of a larger plan to reform immigration detention proposed by the homeland security secretary, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press. Janet Napolitano is proposing that illegal immigrants awaiting deportation be confined according to the risk they may pose and will detail her plan on Tuesday.

September 30th, 2009 Sector Snap: Some lodging price targets raisedNEW YORK — A Goldman Sachs analyst boosted the price targets of some lodging companies Tuesday, citing slowing supply growth and an uptick in demand. Many lodging operators saw declining demand during the recession as consumers looked to trim costs and held back on booking trips or took shorter vacations.

September 9th, 2009 KOLKATA - Swissotel Hotels Wednesday became the first Swiss hospitality chain to enter India as it announced a management contract with the Ambuja Realty group for setting up a five-star hotel at Rajarhat New town on the city's north eastern fringes. Swissotel Hotels, owned by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International - a leading global hospitality company with 91 hotels and resorts worldwide - has inked the 10-year deal with the Kolkata-based real estate company for managing the five-star property spread over 160,000 feet.

August 28th, 2009 Strategic Hotels names 2 independent board membersCHICAGO — Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. said Thursday that it has named Raymond L.

August 25th, 2009 Hedge fund gets Creative Loafing's 6 alt-weekliesTAMPA, Fla. — A New York hedge fund snapped up the Creative Loafing newspaper chain during a bankruptcy auction Tuesday and promised to keep its six free alternative weeklies running as normal.

August 7th, 2009 Hotel companies climb after economic newsCHICAGO — Shares of U.S hotel chains climbed Friday after a series of economic reports showed the recession may be drawing to a close and gave investors hope the hard-hit industry will see occupancy rates climb. Early in the day, federal data showed that employers sharply scaled back layoffs in July.

July 2nd, 2009 Global Hyatt changes name to Hyatt HotelsCHICAGO — Global Hyatt Corp., the privately held hotel and resort company, said Thursday it has changed its name to Hyatt Hotels Corp. The renamed Hyatt Hotels is the parent of companies that own, operate, manage and franchise hotels, resorts and timeshare properties.

July 1st, 2009 Hotel stocks trade mixed after sector downgradeNEW YORK — Hotel companies' shares were mixed on Wednesday afternoon after a Barclays Capital analyst, calling herself "extremely bearish," downgraded the lodging sector and said an industry recovery is likely to lag far behind an economic recovery. Barclays analyst Felicia Hendrix lowered the sector to a "Negative" rating from "Neutral." She also cut her ratings to "Underweight" from "Equal Weight" for three major hotel companies: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., Marriott International Inc.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's hospitality sector has witnessed a fall of 64 percent in profit in the January-March quarter this year, thanks to the economic slowdown, an industry lobby report said here Thursday. "While on the one hand the inflow of foreign tourists came down sharply and the room rates contracted, on the other hand there was a rise in expenses," the report by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said.

May 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, has inked a pact with one of India's largest online travel companies, Yatra.com, to provide 100,000 travel agents access to 900 one to three-star hotels on its global distribution system (GDS). 'We offer customers a choice of booking channels, including online and traditional retail methods.

May 13th, 2009 Halladay outpitches Burnett as Jays beat Yanks 5-1TORONTO — Roy Halladay pitched a five-hitter to best former teammate A.J. Burnett, Scott Rolen had three hits and three RBIs and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 5-1 on Tuesday night.

April 10th, 2009 NOIDA - Fortune Park Hotels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, Friday opened its second property in Noida after one in Gurgaon and intends to come up with five more in the national capital region (NCR) in near future, a senior company official said. 'With a large number of corporate and other institutions based in the region, we are sure of receiving good response for our hotel,' Fortune Hotels president Suresh Kumar said after the opening of Fortune Inn Grazia.

April 10th, 2009 NOIDA - Fortune Park Hotels Ltd., today announced the opening of its property, 'Fortune Inn Grazia', in the centrally located Sector 27 of Noida. Fortune Inn Grazia is the second operational Fortune Hotels property in the NCR region after Gurgaon and there are five more to open in the near future.

January 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A leading industry lobby has advocated a five-year tax holiday for hotels including five-star establishments in and around the capital to expedite hotel room construction before the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. The Union budget of 2007-08 provides a five-year tax holiday for two-star, three-star and four-star hotels and convention centres in Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) and Ghaziabad.