Marriott Carolina Beach|"Five Luxury Hotels Set To Open"

Source             :    gulf-daily-news.com
Category        :    Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :    Frances Leate
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

HUNDREDS of millions of dinars are being invested in Bahrain's tourism industry with five new luxury hotels set to open in the next six months. Adding to the 14 already in existence, they are all expected to be fully up and running by April and will create hundreds of jobs across the country. The Four Seasons Hotel and Resort, in Bahrain Bay, is thought to represent a substantial investment in Bahrain's tourism industry, although the exact costs of the property have not been made public. The five-star, 201-metre-tall, 50-storey hotel complex is due to open in the $2.5 billion Bahrain Bay waterfront development in April, creating 700 permanent jobs. The Ramee Grand Hotel & Spa, in Seef, has already opened to guests and will be officially launched next month. The luxury multimillion dinar five-star hotel boasts a spa and wellness centre spread over an entire floor.The 318 room five-star Renaissance Bahrain is due to open in Amwaj Islands in January, while leading international hotel chain, Rotana, also plans to build a new five-star hotel in 2014 following the opening of the BD22 million dinar Majestic Arjaan in Muharraq earlier this year. The new Rotana Hotel will be built near Bab Al Bahrain.

The Swiss-Belhotel International will also open next March and is a four-star hotel promising to offer good value for money luxury accommodation. Marriott International is also building Bahrain's first JW Marriott Hotel in Bahrain Bay. The 50-storey property will have 274 rooms and suites and 102 residences and is set to open in 2016. The luxury Domain Hotel opened earlier this year in the Diplomatic area. The sleek 36-storey boutique hotel includes nine different social spaces and has the most expensive suite in the country, from between BD2,500 to BD4,230. According to Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry tourism committee chairman Nabeel Kanoo, the growth of the five-star hotel market is a sign things are looking up economically after the recession and political unrest of the last few years. "The feeling was that things had to get better eventually and developers would carry on with their plans to build these luxury hotels, no matter what," he said.

"Despite the troubles, the belief was, things should carry on as normal. "The events of February 2011, in the minds of many people, were just a small blip and although it did put visitors off at first, things are starting to get better now. "The numbers of people visiting from neighbouring GCC countries are increasing; it may take a while for that to filter through to the rest of the world as we get negative Press which doesn't help but it is all a matter of time. "For the hotel companies I suppose it is a bit of a gamble at the moment, most of them are not being filled to capacity and before February 2011 most of the hotels were getting packed out during the weekend and holidays, but the fact that they are up and running can only be a good thing in the long-term as things begin to improve. "We have to plan for the future and the good times that are ahead." Salvatore Ramano, managing director of the recently opened Ramee Grand Hotel and Spa in Seef, said he was confident that his new five-star hotel, which boasts the country's biggest hotel room at more than 45sqm, would attract plenty of customers.

"The Ramee Grand has 18 years of experience in the hotel industry in Bahrain and we know exactly what our clients are looking for," he said. "We have something special and unique to offer and that will always attract guests, whatever the climate, if you have a good name for yourself then people will come to you. "In the last year there have been a lot of developments in Bahrain, people are investing and we are starting to see a return to how it was in 2005, 2006 and 2007." Five-Star Hotels executive committee chairman Abdulnabi Daylami said there had been a 35 per cent improvement in the occupancy of the seven five-star hotels under the umbrella of the committee, which includes the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa and the Sheraton Hotel. "Compared to last year we are faring much better. The current year so far has been much better than 2012 going by the occupancy levels of these hotels which we monitor on a daily and monthly basis," he said. "As well as weekenders and travellers from other parts of the GCC we are getting more conventions and seminars taking place in Bahrain. "More companies are using Bahrain as a place to conduct business. This means they are not just occupying the rooms but there are also restaurants and outlets so our five-star hotels are doing well."

Source : gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=361518

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Ritz Carlton Plans To Open 20 New Hotels"

Source             :    skift.com
Category        :    Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :     Ritz-Carlton
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has announced plans to add 20 new hotels to its portfolio to bring the number to 100 hotels and resorts around the world by 2016. The expansion plans include capital cities and emerging tourist destinations, some of which will be debuts for the international hotel group. The Ritz Carlton has opened three new properties over the last 12 months – the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, UAE; Dorado Beach, a Ritz Carlton Reserve in Puerto Rico; and the Ritz Carlton Vienna in Austria. Additionally, five more hotels are scheduled to open in the last quarter of the year, including two new properties in China – The Ritz Carlton Chengdu, and The Ritz-Carlton, Tianjin. Other hotels scheduled to open are The Ritz Carlton, Almaty in Kazakhstand; The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba; and The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore in India.

Ritz-Carlton president and chief operating officer Herve Humler said: “The robust pipeline of hotel projects indicates a continued strong demand for Ritz-Carlton products and services. We are delighted at the company’s continued positive growth. Across the globe, and especially in Asia and the Middle East, we will be the undisputed top-tier luxury hospitality brand by 2016.” The group will also be adding more residences to its portfolio, following strong demand for the serviced apartments offering by The Ritz-Carlton. “The growth of Residences by The Ritz-Carlton has been impressive. Affluent customers are choosing these lifestyle options because they know that their condominiums and estate homes will be managed in the same exceptional way as our hotels. Whether as a second or third home, or a primary residence, it is a great testimony to the affinity our customers have for The Ritz-Carlton,” said Humler.

2014 will mark more hotel and resort openings for the group in cities such as Kyoto, Japan; Nanjing, China; Rabat, Morocco; Cairo, Egypt; Manesar, India and Bali, Indonesia, followed by more openings in Cabo San Lucas; Oman, Muscat; Bali, Indonesia; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Tunis, Tunisia and Haikou, China in 2015.

Source:skift.com/2013/09/17/ritz-carlton-plans-to-open-20-new-hotels-by-2016-focuses-on-asia-and-middle-east/

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Westchester May Join Hotel Tax Lawsuit"

Source             :    lohud.com
Category        :    Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :    lohud
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

Westchester County is considering whether to join a class action that alleges multiple online travel companies are not remitting all the hotel taxes they collect to local governments. The lawsuit, filed two years ago by Nassau County, claims Expedia, Priceline.com, Orbitz and similar businesses charge hotel taxes based on discounted rates they buy rooms for, not the higher rates they charge their consumers. “While Defendants charge and collect Hotel Taxes from occupants based on the marked up room rates, they only remit to the Class members, if anything, tax amounts based on the lower, negotiated room rates,” the filing said. “Defendants unlawfully pocket the difference.” The lawsuit, which was designated in April as a class action, comes at a time when local governments are struggling to find new revenues. All local governments that have imposed hotel taxes at any time since 1995 are plaintiffs unless they opt out by Oct. 11. Eighty local governments in New York have hotel taxes, the state Comptroller’s Office said.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino is recommending the county not opt out of the lawsuit. The county has a 3 percent hotel tax and collected $5.3 million in 2012. The Board of Legislators is reviewing his recommendation. “These companies are hitting taxpayers and visitors with a double whammy,” county spokeswoman Diana Costello said. “They collect a higher tax from consumers, and then put the profits in their own pockets instead of passing along what is due to Westchester.” Rye Brook, White Plains, New Rochelle and the city of Rye also have 3 percent hotel taxes. Rye Brook estimates it will collect $630,000 in taxes this year from its two hotels, the Hilton Westchester and Doral Arrowwood, said Chris Bradbury, village administrator. Rockland County is opting out because officials “figured it wasn’t going to benefit us in any real way,” said Stephen DeGroat, county finance commissioner. The county implemented a 3 percent hotel tax in April 2012, which yields about $1 million a year. Most people who stay in hotels and motels in Rockland book directly with hotels, he said.

Source : lohud.com/article/20130912/NEWS02/309120079/Westchester-may-join-hotel-tax-lawsuit

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Indonesian Drug Mule Arrested After Hotel Room Raid"

Source             :    thestar.com.my
Category        :    Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :    Johor Baru
Posted By     :    Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

Police have arrested a 41-year-old Indonesian drug mule who carried 3.1kg of syabu in a special compartment in his luggage while travelling from India. The substance with a street value of RM621,600 was seized when police raided a hotel room in Senai, Kulaijaya, at about 6pm yesterday. Johor deputy police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Ismail Yatim said that the suspect, believed to be working for an international drug ring, had brought in the drugs by hiding them in a special compartment in his luggage via the Senai International Airport. “We put the luggage under an airport scanner and the drugs could not be detected. We believe that the syndicate may have used this tactic many times before to avoid detection,” he said at a press conference here.

He said that the drugs could cater for some 15,540 addicts, adding that the suspect had tested negative for drugs and would be remanded until next Tuesday to assist in their investigations. In a separate case, DCP Ismail said that police had arrested six suspects including a 16-year-old girl who were part of a syndicate involved in at least three break-ins and eight robberies in the Johor Baru North area. He said that during the group’s latest spree, three of the suspects robbed a sundry shop in Taman Perling here at about 6pm on Monday. He said that police had seized a CCTV camera, an LCD television set, eight machetes, electrical tools and 63 cartons of cigarettes worth about RM20,000 from a Proton Waja that the syndicate used. “We believe that the syndicate used the money they got from their illegal activities to invest in contraband cigarettes before selling them at a higher price than what they had bought them at,” he added.

Source:thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/09/13/Indonesian-drug-mule-arrested-after-hotel-room-raid.aspx

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Hotel Lobbies Get Makeovers To Draw Guests"

Source             :   huffingtonpost.com
Category         :  Marriott Carolina Beach
By                   :   SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Posted By       :   Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Mariott Carolina Beach

Long treated as dead spaces that hotel guests raced through on the way to the elevator, lobbies are being transformed into places to work, surf the Web or meet friends for a drink. Large, traditional hotels are spending billions in renovations to try to mimic the style and financial success of luxury and boutique hotels, which have always drawn free-spending crowds to their lobbies. Walls are being torn down to make lobbies feel less confined. Communal tables are popping up. Wine lists are being upgraded. And quiet nooks are being carved out that give business travelers space to work but still be near the action. Companies like Marriott, Starwood and Hyatt are betting that more vibrant lobbies will leave guests – especially younger ones – with a better feeling about their stay, even if their room is bland. Hotel owners say the investments are beginning to pay off, not just in alcohol sales, but in their ability to charge higher room rates. "People want to go where people are," says Michael Slosser, managing director of operations for Destination Hotels and Resorts, a group of 40 hotels in the U.S. "They want to go to be seen, to relax and to people watch."

The changes are meant to attract travelers like Michael Coscetta, a 31-year-old consultant from Wantagh, N.Y., who spends about 90 nights a year on the road. "Working in a hotel room feels claustrophobic," says Coscetta, who instead takes his laptop and heads to the lobby or a nearby coffee shop. Steve Carvell, associate dean for academic affairs at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, says younger guests "very much want that sense of not feeling alone, even though they are." U.S. hotels are forecast to spend $5.6 billion on capital improvements this year, up 10 percent from 2012 and more than double the $2.7 billion spent in 2010, according to a study by Bjorn Hanson, dean of New York University's hospitality school. The bulk of that money pays for new beds, showers and other room improvements. But Hanson says a "proportionally record amount" of money is going to reconfiguring lobbies.Marriott International, Inc. is freshening up lobbies in its namesake brand with "Great Rooms" that feature free Wi-Fi, comfortable seats and menus stocked with small dishes and local craft beers. The concept was first tested in 2007 and is expected to be in 70 percent of the 550 Marriott hotels worldwide by the end of the year.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. – the company behind trendy W Hotels – launched a $4 billion lobby revitalization of its Sheraton brand in 2009. Nearly half of the 427 Sheratons worldwide now have lobbies with communal areas, modern rugs, improved lighting and flat-screen TVs at the bar. Additionally, Sheraton has tried to inject a bit of pizazz to all its lobbies by adding upscale wine lists, each rated by Wine Spectator magazine. Having better wines gives waitresses "something more to talk about than `Can I take your drink and where are you from?'" says Rick Ueno, general manager of the Sheraton Chicago. It also gives the hotel more revenue. In the first six months of this year, the hotel bar sold 18,000 glasses of wine. That's 24 percent more than the same period last year. At $14 a glass, that adds up to $50,000 more in revenue. Nearby, the Hyatt Regency Chicago spent $168 million to spruce up its lobby, adding clusters of chairs and couches, a grab-and-go marketplace and a restaurant that flows into rest of the lobby. Similar renovations have taken place at Hyatts in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. Robert Mandelbaum, director of research information services at consulting firm PKF Hospitality Research, says the changes are "very much guest driven."

"It isn't fun being one of 20 business people sitting by yourself in a hotel restaurant reading a magazine, eating the $19.95 steak special," Mandelbaum says. While overall hotel food and beverage revenue has fallen 27 percent in the last five years, sales in hotel bars have grown 5 percent, according to Mandelbaum. Grand old luxury hotels, like New York's Plaza and Chicago's Drake, have long relied on their public spaces to help distinguish themselves. But as national hotel chains developed in the 1960s, designs became standardized and bland. Guests no longer selected hotels by the looks of the lobby but on the brand's reputation. A brief lobby renaissance kicked off in 1967 with the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. The hotel's 22-story atrium and rooftop revolving restaurant made it a tourist destination. Similar hotels soon popped up in San Francisco, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles. But the oil crises of 1973 and 1979 made heating and cooling giant atriums impractical.

Increased use of wheeled suitcases reduced the need for bellmen and the space they occupied. The lobby became a place to swipe a credit card, get a room key and leave. By the 1980s, they resembled bunkers, with low ceilings and few windows. "The industry really failed by letting the lobbies get hollow," says Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson. Then in 1984, Ian Schrager and his business partner Steve Rubell – the men behind the famed 1970s nightclub Studio 54 – opened the Morgans Hotel in New York. The rooms were tiny. But its stylized lobby redefined the industry. Robert Mapplethorpe photographs were commissioned for the walls. Nightclub music blared. When it first opened, locals waited behind red velvet ropes to enter. "The lobby established the pricing of the hotel," says NYU's Hanson.

It would take more than a decade for chains to catch on. Then, in 1998, Starwood opened the W New York. The lobby became the "living room." Forget food. The emphasis was on drinks with higher profit margins. Guests clamored at the bar to buy $14 cosmopolitans and sour apple martinis. Other hotel chains eventually followed with their own boutique brands, including Hyatt's Andaz and InterContinental's Indigo. Marriott partnered with Schrager to launch its own "lifestyle" brand. But traditional convention, airport and city center hotels were largely ignored until now. Revamping lobbies is a delicate balancing act: attract younger road warriors but don't turn away baby boomers with loud, thumping music. Sheraton's first lobby modernization came in 2006 when it partnered with Microsoft to provide free computers. Soon it was selling Starbucks to lingering guests.

"As people spent more time in the lobby, they were more willing to purchase food and beverages," says Hoyt Harper, the senior vice president in charge of Sheraton. Nearly 15.1 million – or half of – Sheraton guests use the computers each year. Just 5.8 million use the gym. Pushing through costly renovations isn't easy. Most chain hotels are owned by smaller companies that must meet the larger brand's standards in exchange for using the Sheraton, Marriott or Hyatt name. Some need convincing to understand the benefits of spending millions on a lobby revamp. For proof that the investment works, look no further than Destination Hotels and the $26 million renovation of its seaside L'Auberge Del Mar resort in Southern California. Its new living room-style lobby features large doors that open out to the ocean, allowing the breeze to flow through. A fireplace warms guests on cold days as they enjoy $25 charcuterie plates and $12 hibiscus margaritas. Prior to the renovation, the hotel sold $450,000 worth of food and drinks in its lobby each year. Today, it sells more than double that. "If they are comfortable in the space and surrounded by others, they will stay and spend more money," says Destination's Slosser. "They become not concerned about the price. They're much more interested in staying there and enjoying their life."

Source;huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/hotel-lobbies-makeovers_n_3865731.html?utm_hp_ref=travel

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Ways You Can Tell Your "4-Star" Hotel Gave Itself Too Many Stars"

Source             :   huffingtonpost.com
Category         :  Marriott Carolina Beach
By                   :   Kevin Richberg
Posted By       :   Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marritt Carolina Beach

I'd bet you might not know the answer to that, but you could probably make a good guess based on the level of service you received and your overall satisfaction. Hotel booking portals such as Hotels.com or Priceline.com use the star system as one of the most important variables in selling their products. They're betting that you'll pay more money for a hotel with a higher star rating, with the understanding that this rating directly correlates to the quality of the hotel.Unfortunately the accurate answer is: there isn't one -- it's another one of those smoke and mirror tactics marketers use to produce a fictional sense of quality.Of all the things you assume you paid for in a safe and maintained overnight stay, functional plumbing is central to the unspoken agreement between hotelier and customer. A tub that doesn't drain, a clogged toilet, or a explosion of sink goo is thoroughly unacceptable even at a 1-star property. In a "4-star" you should immediately demand a quick fix and compensation for your trouble.Believe it or not, in the sciences we'll often classify mold as "good mold" and "bad mold." However, don't bother trying to identify which type you've found in your hotel room, because when you're paying money to stay at a "4-star" property, it's ALWAYS bad to have mold.

I can get by without a great many things when I travel, more than most everyone I know. Coffee is not one of them! It's a rare hotel which dares to call itself a "4-star" (or a "5-star") and doesn't provide you with some form of caffeine, be it coffee or tea. But it's even a rarer breed of hotel which provides you with the coffee cups in your room, but nothing else. They practically taunt you to call them out for it.Getting a "4-star" room doesn't mean you're entitled to the furniture normally reserved for a suite. You might not get a luggage rack or a bidet, but for the most part you can count on a desk (even if it's a small one). "4-Star" hotels often cater to business clientele for at least a part of the week, and business people rarely enjoy working on make-shift desks made from items found throughout the room.A modern and sophisticated hotel knows when it's time to make systemwide upgrades. A cheap and unfazed hotel will often keep aging/outdated appliances until the bitterly cold end. Air conditioning technology has come a long way since the days when you had to stick half your arm down a metal shaft to press a comically large button to engage a shrieking coolant beast from 1980 something. Elderly air conditioners are easy to spot because they tend to turn your room into the frozen tundra and make a deafening amount of noise in the process.When items are real they send a certain message. When items are fake, they usually send the opposite message.

If your hotel is trying to convince you that rooms sell for $279, but they'll take $179, and accept $100 if you bid for the room on an auction site, then be prepared for a few things to be 'not quite right' when you show up.I cannot think of a more hard hitting slap in the face when a dissatisfied customer attempts to check out early because of unsatisfactory service (mold, tubs not draining, air conditioning nightmares, etc.) than being charged a fee for doing so. It's as if the hotel is saying "It's not bad enough we tricked you into our clutches with our faux stars, now we're going to charge you for not sticking it out. We'll also be selling your room to some other sucker after you leave."Hotels are chosen by consumers for many reasons, some having nothing to do with stars. The historical nature of a hotel's roots is a big draw for many travelers. The problem comes when a hotel can't differentiate between 'maintaining historical character' and 'just being old.'To me, this is the most offensive sin of all. It's not simply that this comment card is the bare minimum necessary to be able to answer "yes we have a comment card," it's that the true intent of this form is simply to acquire customer information for future marketing spam. 

Although these experiences all came from the same "4-Star" hotel, I've encountered each in several instances over a decade of traveling (I've even seen someone post their private home on Hotels.com and call it a 2 Star Hotel). As a travel consumer you have the ability to fight back against "star inflation" with online reviews that call out "suspect properties." Hotels that are truly living up to their stars are proud of the quality of service they offer, and should be rewarded with future business. Those that care more about squeezing a buck out of the customers they can scrounge up with their dubious star ratings should be called out for it!

Source : huffingtonpost.com/kevin-richberg/10-ways-you-can-tell-your_b_3850107.html

Marriott Carolina Beach|"The Babe & The Cynic"

Source            :    renewamerica.com/
Category        :   Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :   Selwyn Duke
Posted By     :   Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

A certain very erudite and always entertaining social critic remarked recently that he always thought the worst of people. He went on to say – perhaps, at most, half jokingly – that he was always right about them, too. He then revealed that he actually had been very trusting as a boy, that he believed everyone and often got taken advantage of. He certainly doesn't get taken advantage of much now, I'm sure. But what he doesn't know is that in one significant way he hasn't changed at all. The man's admission of his boyhood as a doormat didn't surprise me, for gullibility and cynicism are two sides of the same coin. They are both a function of naiveté, which can be defined as ignorance about reality. The gullible person proceeds as if everyone is good and trustworthy, whereas the cynic proceeds as if everyone is essentially bad and untrustworthy. But reality is quite different: there are, practically speaking, "good" people and "bad" people, the well-meaning and the self-serving. And possessing discernment enables one to distinguish between the two groups. Yet the gullible person trusts people even when he shouldn't and the cynic fails to trust them even when he should.

The transition from gullible babe in the woods to steadfast cynic is easy to understand. The budding cynic, lacking in what some today called "emotional I.Q.," is unable to draw the aforementioned distinctions among people; they all look the same to him. But being essentially good – and, as people will do, supposing that others operate as he does – he assumes that virtually everyone can be trusted. Then, of course, it isn't long before the wrong person betrays his trust – and it happens again and again and again (this is especially problematic since con artists, generally possessed of great feel for man's nature, will sense his gullibility and target him specifically). Not wanting to be burned again, the babe then switches modes and ceases to trust, but not just those unworthy of it. For he still can't distinguish between the good and bad; people still all look the same to him, so the untrustworthy who scarred him now just seem like a representative sample of man. Thus does he assume that all people are basically self-serving and often mercenary.

Of course, the babe no doubt also knew people who didn't betray him. Just as it's usually only bad news that makes headlines, however, it's his personal bad news that captures the headlines in his mind. Besides, cynicism becomes a survival tactic: since he never knows who would plunge that knife into his back, he finds it safer to never turn it on anyone. And so just as the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, the babe becomes the cynic, seemingly a very different creature but actually still the same one. This won't be how the cynic sees it, though. He will fancy he has grown up when he has only grown soul-sick; he will assume he is worlds apart from his old self when that person is but a dime's width away. "I'm onto you now!" the cynic may think; "You can't fool me!" but he has fooled himself. He may stand around, with a knowing air, talking about the cynical motives of the government, the Church, environmentalists, pro-lifers and anything sentient that walks on two legs, and he may be right half the time – just as the babe was. But he is still painting everyone with the same brush; he just has changed his color choice from Angel White to Demon Night.

Cynicism is hard to recover from, too. This is not just because it's a survival tactic, but also because it's a simple way of comprehending the world (and people like simple explanations) and gives the cynic that sense of being a sophisticate immune to guile. Moreover, it seems to make sense. After all, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, if you look for the worst in people, you're sure to find it – even if you have to imagine it. Everyone has failings, "bad news" that easily will capture headlines in the cynic's mind and be used to characterize the individual. Just as significantly, much of what we do and say lends itself to interpretation, which is why misunderstanding always lurks just around the corner. What did Jim really mean by what he said? And while the cynic, never having been good at reading people, isn't the best candidate for rendering this interpretation, you know what it will be. Every innocent misstep will be insidious malevolence, every slip of the tongue a calculated, subtle slight. And every reading will further confirm what he already "knows" about people.

For this reason, the cynic is much like the woman who has been jilted romantically and hurt: having had her heart broken by a man and never wanting to experience such pain again, she hardens her heart; she puts a wall around it, never letting another fellow get close. And for the same reasons why the cynic doesn't trust man, she doesn't trust men: she has found it safer to just paint all men with the same dark brush (this is, by the way, one of feminism's root causes), and anger makes this emotionally appealing. The cynic likewise feels safe behind his walls of misanthropy; this, along with the fact that he sees people as having confirmed his conception of man's nature for many years, and because he has an ego, make him so sure of his judgments that it's unlikely he will ever question his cynicism. This is why good religion counsels against "rash judgment."

This brings us to the tragedy of cynicism. What the cynic mistakes for the walls of his fortress are really the boundaries of his prison; what he thinks keeps the bad at bay actually shuts the good out. His world is a dark place, where he perceives the sinful but doesn't see the saintly – at least not most of it. To make matters worse, he magnifies the bad because he misreads much of his fellow man's light as darkness. He has created not only his own hell, but his own devils. They surround him, and should he lower his walls he will be devoured.

But to become cynical is to give the Devil his victory. There is a social phenomenon today whereby we will sacrifice great joy and freedom for a gram of safety; we will eliminate dodgeball, high diving boards at hotels, large sodas and anything else that may imperil us as we ensconce our children in Beelzebub's bubble wrap. But you risk your life just by living, and you can't really live without accepting risk. This is true in the emotional realm as well. While we should mature beyond gullibility and not play the doormat, we can't fully imbibe the human experience without opening ourselves up to other humans and risking at least the possibility of being hurt. As our capacity to trust dies, so does our capacity to live. The irony of cynicism is that while it is the belief that all people act out of selfish motives, it is motivated by a desire to protect the self. Thus, the best way to combat selfishness isn't to erect those walls. It is to tear them down.

Source : renewamerica.com/columns/duke/130813

Marriott Carolina Beach|"Serial Conman Mark Leslie Targeted Top North East Hotels"

Source            :    chroniclelive.co.uk/
Category        :   Marriott Carolina Beach
By                  :    Liz Walker
Posted By     :   Hotels Carolina Beach NC

Marriott Carolina Beach

Serial conman Mark Leslie ran up massive bills at two of the region’s top hotels, then fled without paying. Parading as a businessman who was entertaining prospective clients, unemployed trickster Mark Leslie enjoyed fine dining in high-class private rooms, luxury suites and golf buggies during his three-day scam, that also involved his wife, four-year-old son and two Tyneside drag queens.

In the first of two court appearances this week before Newcastle magistrates, the court heard how Leslie, of Alnwick Terrace, Wideopen, booked two suites at the exclusive Close House Hotel in Northumberland in August last year. But at the end of the two-night stay, during which the party had racked up a hotel, restaurant and bar bill of £1,459.95, including the hire of three golf buggies, he left without returning the keys or settling the bill.

Leslie, 28, pleaded not guilty to making off without payment and told magistrates he was not willing to pay as he was “disgusted” with the standard of service he had received at the hotel. He claimed he had later emailed the hotel to offer to pay a reduced amount. The court heard how, shortly after the party arrived at the hotel, the manager was called to their room where he found Leslie’s son screaming and covered in blood having cut his finger on shards of glass left lying in the bath, it was claimed.

Giving evidence, the duty manager at the time of the incident Peter Dawson said he was “sceptical” of Leslie’s version of the cause of the boy’s injuries. Leslie later made a complaint about how, despite being given permission to take golf buggies on a tour of the grounds as a goodwill gesture for his son’s injury, the party were told to return them by a “rude” member of staff who said they were “not golfers.” This left Leslie “angry and embarrassed”, he said.

Leslie, a former bar and pub chain area manager who is on income support and receives housing benefit, had booked the rooms under the name Starburst Leisure, a company he admitted has never traded as an entertainment business and has no funds. He claimed he had intended to pay for the rooms in cash raised by selling his wife’s iPad, the family TV and savings.Magistrates said Leslie’s explanation of events lacked credibility and found him guilty.

In a second hearing Leslie pleaded guilty to making off without paying a bill of £624.55 at Lumley Castle, Chester-le-Street days before the stay at Close House. On the day of trial, Leslie admitted the charge, but claimed he left after one night because the food and service were bad. Magistrates committed Leslie to Newcastle Crown Court for sentence, where he is already due for sentence on August 16 for another matter of fraud.

Source : chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/serial-conman-mark-leslie-targeted-5677826