Dozens Killed at Mumbai Hotels

Breaking news has dozens killed at terrorists attacks at five star luxury hotels in Mumbai, India. The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the Marriott and the Oberoi Hotel were hit as Wednesday turned into Thursday, Thanksgiving in the US. These hotels are among the best in Mumbai and we deal with them right here on AllStays.com.

With dozens killed and hundreds injured, this looks to be the worst attack in India since 1993. These locations are mostly catering to a clientèle of westerners. This includes Great Britain, Western Europe as well as the United States.

We like to think that luxury hotels such as in our specialty guide are more secure than other hotels. But that is not always the case. And the truth is, no one is ever safe from a determined force of attackers. There is always a way and people just have to get out and live and travel when they want to or need to travel.

Presidential Inauguration Hotels

Although tickets aren't even available for the Inauguration of President Obama until only two weeks before the January event, you can't wait that long. In fact, most rooms are already gone in Washington D.C. They were taken months ago by hopefuls and speculators. There are some pricey packages still available for thousands of dollars or maybe a friend's couch or a family member's guest bed?

We figured it may be necessary to drive or ride in from another nearby city so we created some new maps of Washington D.C. and the lodging nearby. We have the text list of Washington D.C. hotels, a map of Washington D.C. hotels and bed and breakfasts, and a large loading page of all lodging within a 100 miles of the White House.

Good luck in your search and enjoy the inauguration.

Green Hotel Rating System

AllStays has had a green hotel guide since early 2005. We were the first travel website to do so when it wasn't getting much respect or attention. But now it is getting more and more popular as we add and expand it on a weekly basis. Now we are taking it to another level.

We are currently rolling out our Green Hotel Rating System. It is now being added to our Green Hotel section, which includes motels, bed and breakfasts and retreats. The system breaks down lodging with 24 green aspects and then rates the hotel based on how many of those a property is integrating and running. An icon is added for easy reference, along with the list of the aspects at that hotel. Easy to read and spot what that property is doing to make a difference.

Our green rating system will be expanded and added to all normal section listings over the near future as well. Over three thousand lodging places have been rated so far.

Southwest Airlines Dress Code

For the second time in recent months, Southwest Airlines has to apologize for enforcing a dress code they say doesn't exist.

Infringing on his right to free speech in America, an employee told him he had to change his T-shirt, turn it inside out, or get off the plane. He was wearing a fictional fishing shop T-shirt featuring the words, "Master Baiter."

He did change his shirt so he could get home without being delayed.

Southwest Airlines has already apologized recently to a college student who was wearing a denim miniskirt and a sweater over a tank top. She was told to change her outfit or get off a flight leaving San Diego.

So they say they don't have a dress code for passengers but they seem to be enforcing one anyway.

Interstate Exit Guide

We've spent the last 13 months creating a guide to interstate exits for you. It is a rather crazy project in scope but it's well worth it for us. Recently, we were traveling I-8 in 116 degree weather. We were wondering about gas fill ups between Yuma, AZ and the San Diego metro area. Using our interstate exit guide, we could check exits and see what had what. We learned there is a decent gap in services between El Centro, CA and San Diego, CA. Only a few places to fuel up between there and the long hot climb over the mountains.

We made it easy to find hotels closest to a particular exit. We also added gas stations, restaurants, repair shops, common chain stores and any other place we could find in the phone books that is close to that exit. We tried to indicate the direction from the exit that the business was located as well. But always go by the signs on the exit ramps first, in case our GPS data was wrong.

How do you access the internet as you travel to use this information? There are many options. You can research in advance, the night before, from wireless access at restaurants and truck stops or from cellular internet connections as you drive. It is getting easier and easier to find the web on the road.

Another benefit is in this scenario. You find the hotels at the upcoming exit. You can then use AllStays to find the hotels, call direct and see if they have rooms. You can try getting a rate direct by phone, you can walk-in or book online. If you are not chain specific, you may look at all the hotels by the exit and get an idea of the price ranges before contacting them. Many times the rates will be different for each booking option. I've gotten much better rates sitting in the parking lot of a chain motel than walking through the door when they think you are desperate and not likely to drive down the road.

We will keep adding data to this interstate guide to make it more useful, such as links to the official locations so you can have the phone number and addresses of the various places.

Hotels Near Baseball Parks

We have created a new way of finding your way to and around your favorite MLB teams home games. The season is getting late but our guide will remain for this year and beyond. Our guide to Major League Baseball stadiums and nearby hotels is online now. You can select by team name or by location on a map. The balloon that pops up on the map when select a team lets you get more information about the park. The map you can see has it's real GPS plotted location. Zoom in and see it on the satellite or map views. If you zoom in all the way, you can find parking lots and the way the roads look around the city.

From another link there you can find the closest available hotels with distances from that baseball park. And yet another link will put the baseball field and ALL hotels and motels on the map. This includes small independent motels and their phone numbers as well as the chains that are bookable anywhere.

For cross referencing, we also add this info to city pages. For example, if you look at our map of Chicago hotels, you'll see all the sporting venues highlighted on the map and the sidebar on the right side of the map.

NFL Game Hotels Easier to Find

We have created a new way of finding your way to and around your favorite NFL Teams game this season. Our guide to NFL stadiums and nearby hotels is online now. You can select by team name or by location on a map. The information balloon that pops up on the map then lets you get more stadium information. If you're like us, you sometimes get annoyed by the NFL team websites and their fancy slow loading designs. Sometimes you just need information in a hurry. From these links you can get directions, parking, and seating maps. And on the map you can see it's real GPS plotted location. Zoom in and see it on the satellite or map views. If you zoom in all the way, you can find parking lots and the way the roads look around the area.

Another link lets you find the closest available hotels with distances from that stadium. Yet another link will put the stadium and ALL hotels and motels on the map. This will include small independent motels and their phone numbers as well as the chains that are bookable with us as well as other major travel websites.

In the near future, we will have this feature set up for all other sports teams and events as well.

Glasgow Airport in Scotland Closed

A burning car slammed into Glasgow Airport terminal in Scotland on Saturday, June 30th. This triggers yet another scare after the UK went on alert over the findings of a couple cars in London with nails and explosives.

If you need a hotel in the Glasgow area, click here to search for availability.

See related news articles here.

Outsourced Travel Websites

This is a tough post that no one wants to see in print.

Outsourcing is a dirty little secret for many companies, internet companies included. Although no company wants to talk about it, it is in fact a large issue because it affects the bottom line of these companies while it hurts the local economy. The travel industry has felt this impact as well. It is too easy to outsource call center and technical jobs to places such as India. But if jobs keep going away, who is going to have the money to travel and give it to the very same greedy companies that started the downward cycle?

Our belief is that if you are calling from the USA, you should get an employee from the USA. If you are calling your favorite travel agent from Great Britain, you probably want to speak with someone from Great Britain as well. Someone who knows the area and can speak your language.

Popular travel website companies that outsource many jobs include Expedia/Hotels.com, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and Cendant Hospitality (Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Wyndham, Baymont, Wingate, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Amerihost and Knights Inn).

We can swear that AllStays.com does not employ or outsource any job under our control. We don't worry about a stock price and we don't send our own customers out of the country, wherever they may be located. Our website is built here, stored here, programmed here and maintained here. We strongly push for customer service jobs of all industries to remain in this country. Whether we build an office in Las Vegas, London, or Paris, we'll hire locally for that office. For full disclosure however, we do use a outside phone call service center run by another company that remained open in Texas. This company has now begun to outsource some of these positions as well and against our wishes but out of our control. Although we don't agree with this tactic, we are powerless against it at the moment. Until another solution is found, that is what is happening whether we like it or not.

So how can you avoid the outsourced position when booking travel? Book online right here. Our servers are housed, serviced, secured and maintained in America. Nothing so much as a graphic image on this site was built anywhere else.

A more complete list can be found from CNN's Lou Dobbs, as a resource for this information here.

Delta Flight 6499: Seven Hours in Tarmacville

Airlines have recently talked about having passenger bill of rights and many have indeed written them up. There is a difference between just writing them and actually following them however. Here is Delta Airlines interpretation of theirs in a YouTube video. No food for you!

You can also join the lively discussion about this video here.

Gay-Friendly Cities Prosper

A recent segment of CNN's Inn The Money featured a professor from George Mason University by the name of Richard Florida. He is the author of the book The Rise of the Creative Class and stated that the more "gay-friendly" a city is, the more economically prosperous it can be.

He said that the college educated youth are moving to the most "gay-friendly" cities because those cities tend to have the best job markets. Think of Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Microsoft (and now Google in their expansion) and Seattle. Other cities at the top include Boston, Portland Oregon and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida. These are cities where open-mindedness leads to innovation and new technology. These cities are prospering and tend to be both more expensive and culturally interesting. You almost don't have to look at hotel room rates in the top and bottom of these lists to know which is doing much better. The gay-friendly cities are much more expensive to visit.

The cities at the bottom end of gay-friendly cities? They include Pittsburgh, Birmingham AL, Detroit, Buffalo, Charlotte NC, and Oklahoma City. These are not the most prosperous, open-minded cities these days. The kids are leaving and not many new jobs are coming in. The educated youth then goes to where the money and ideas are growing.

Macau overtakes Las Vegas as capital

Macau overtakes Las Vegas as gambling capital of the world. According to published number by the Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, gambling revenue totaled $6.95 billion in 2006. That number could exceed the estimated $6.5 billion in gambling revenue generated on the Las Vegas Strip in 2006. Many of the Las Vegas hotel casinos have already stated that they are earning more from their hotels, restaurant and entertainment streams than the casino floor. Whereas in Macau, the gambling floors are packed while entertainers play to some empty seats.

Las Vegas isn't really losing out. Some of the newest places in Macau that likely threw them into the top position, are owned by Las Vegas billionaires like Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.

more on this news here

Unusual Winter Weather

This winter is shaping up as an odd one. Overall, the temps are the warmest ever. Yet in some places like the southwest, it is colder than normal. Recent days have had warmer temperatures in Boston than in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

How does this affect travel? Places where you normally go to ski or enjoy winter sports are hurting for business. And some warm destinations aren't so warm either. More people just stay home.

U.S. 40 Avalanche Highway Is Open

U.S. 40, hit by a massive Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, Jan 6 was re-opened late that night. It is the main highway between Denver and Winter Park, CO. Concerns for future avalanches is still there after three straight weeks of snow storms.

Colorado Avalanche Closes U.S. 40

A massive snow avalanche on Saturday, described as 200 feet wide and 15 feet deep swept and buried cars around Berthoud Pass on U.S. 40, the route between Denver and Winter Park. U.S. 40 is remaining closed as of Saturday afternoon. After three consecutive weeks of major snow storms, Colorado is primed for avalanches. More details can be found here.

We are not aware of any decisions from hotels if you can't make your reservation in Winter Park, Steamboat Springs or other cities that you may have trouble getting to this weekend.

Happy New Year! It's 2007

It's 2007 already and we wish everyone a great new year full of travels and adventure. We are underway with our updates for 2007 rates and park information for camping and wandering the countryside. We have also freshly updated our guides to find certain store locations. We help travelers find locations of Wal-Mart (still updating this week) and others like Flying J, K-Mart, Sam's Club, Costco, Target, TA Travel Centers and Cracker Barrel.

We also like to find great food while away from home so we created guides to find
All Food Co-ops, Natural Food Stores, Health Food Stores, Whole Foods Stores, Wild Oats Stores, and Trader Joes Stores. We just created new icons that make it easier to spot each type of store on the maps. Thanks for all the great suggestions. Have more things you'd like to see? Let us know!

Ski resorts celebrate snow

More and more snow is falling and the ski resorts are opening all over. Our ski resort section is now regularly updated with sno reports and more current information.

Ski Season Opens!

Arapahoe Basin in Colorado became the first ski resort open for the season. They let skiers and snowboarders run on the man-made snow Friday, October 13.

Nearby Loveland Ski Area, the first to open the last six years, opens one day later on Saturday the 14th.

Skiiing does have early season conditions and a base of just 18 inches.

AllStays keeps track of skiing conditions and resorts at http://www.allstays.com/Special/skiing.htm

Change Your Luck, Get $10 in your pocket

It's Friday the 13th and Halloween is coming up so we are trying to make it a better day. How about $10 back in your pocket?

Just select any "Save Rate" booking of $100 or more and enter coupon code SPC6308597 for $10 off.

Asia Hotels Redone and updated

We have totally rebuilt our Asia section. This includes more cities, more hotels, more reviews and hundreds more direct links to the properties. We hope you enjoy this new guide to Asia hotels, lodges, and more types of lodging.

Africa Hotels Redone and updated

We have totally rebuilt our Africa section. This includes more cities, more hotels, more reviews and hundreds more direct links to the properties. We hope you enjoy this new guide to Africa hotels, lodges, safaris and more types of lodging.

New Orleans Luxury Hotels Sued by Immigrant Workers

Latin American workers who were hired as legal "guest workers" by Decatur Hotels, a company that operates 10 luxury hotels in New Orleans, filed a federal lawsuit saying they were recruited with unfulfilled promises of good earnings. In the end, they contend that they have been left thousands of dollars in debt for their visas, recruitment fees and transportation here.

Decatur Hotels worked under the federal H-2B visa program, in which employers must stipulate that they cannot find U.S. workers to fill their jobs. A company can then bring in workers from other countries. The guest workers say that Decatur Hotels has not fulfilled their end of their offer providing them with 40 hours of work per week. Under the law, the workers are bound to work for Decatur Hotels and not allowed to find any other jobs. After paying room and board, a worker may earn as low as $18 for two weeks. The lawsuit contends that Decatur Hotels employs over 300 immigrant workers.

The hotels run by Decatur Hotels are: The Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chateau Dupre Hotel, Historic French Market Inn, Holiday Inn Express Hotel Le Cirque, The Lafayette Hotel, Parc St. Charles, The Pelham Hotel, St. James Hotel, and The Cotton Exchange Hotel.

Whichever side of an issue like this you are on, please let them know.

Hotel Resort Fees Insulting

Hotel Resort Fess are perhaps one of the most annoying (and expensive) things in travel these days. Many big hotels, resorts and corporations insist on upsetting their own guests for profit.

Resort fees were popular just before 9/11/2001 and then most of the fees disappeared when business went down. Years later, the hotels are busy again and fees are popping up all over. Not mentioning the ridiculous parking fees, resort fees are those annoying little charges, sometimes as much as $25 a night, that they tack on to your rate upon checkout. They are for things that used to be for free: the pool, the "free" newspaper, maid service, tips, in room coffee, fitness facilities, the ability to make a toll free phone call or use your calling card and maybe internet access. Although many places still charge an additional fee for the internet access. We know of some popular hotels that add as much as $50 a day between parking and resort fees.

Hotels like to charge extra whenever they can and the customer allows it. Instead of letting you optionally pay for something that you use, they just charge everyone for it. Imagine a restaurant charging everyone for drinks and desert whether you wanted it or not. Or maybe charge for silverware to eat your food. Sounds pretty outrageous doesn't it? In recent years, we've even seen hotels charge extra fees for water and electricity. Could we have a room without water and electricity please? Oh wait, that would be a tent and we can get that cheaper at K-Mart.

AllStays.com asks, isn't that what the hotel rate is for? If someone owns a hotel and it's parking lot, can't we just get one rate for the entire stay at the property? Can we get ask for a room without towels, maid service, coffee, newspaper for less? No. The resort fees are usually required and they are not mentioned upfront.

The fact is that taxes are different on the room rate than on the surcharges. The tax collector is taking a hit. You might say 'who care's about that' but we should care in the way it is handled. When you compare room rates, online or over the phone, the fees are not mentioned. Or they are in fine print buried on a web page you don't see. You may think you are getting a deal by $20 a night and wind up paying $50 more for your stay. It's a way for hotels to act competitive when they are not. Some bargain travel website are also dealing with problem. You accept the risk to take the lowest rate, find out the name of the hotel and you are happy until checkout. Sometimes it's included in your end rate and sometimes guests are rudely surprised. It's also a way to insult a customer they paid to get in the door and to make sure they never come back.

Starwood Hotels has already settled a class action lawsuit on this matter. Starwood, along with Hilton and Marriott now have policies against resort fees. We agree. A hotel should just raise their room rate if they need more money. They can also proudly state what they include in their new rate if they did so.

Consumers need to complain about these charges or they'll charge you $3 a night for using a pillow. Make your voice loud and clear that you don't like it and they are losing a customer. Fees should be optional. If didn't want the plasma television and entertainment center in your room at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel, you shouldn't have to pay $5 for it. But it's in every room, so you have no choice. In the early days, many places would remove these fees when you complain. Like testing the waters to see how much they could get you for and how much they would have to give back. Tack on fees to see if you were paying attention or if you would complain. Most people do not complain. They take it and then complain to everyone they know. The hotel loses potential customers and gets a bad reputation in numerous small circles.

AllStays.com is now going to try to out these resort fee ridden hotels every chance we get. We will be adding a note about this on our city page summaries wherever we can. It still won't be included in the quoted rates or online booking because we can't do it. The hotels control those rates and do not include or disclose it to us. If this really bugs you, try to inspect their website, which we link to directly (no other travel website does this). They may or may not bury the fees on their website. Keep this in mind when comparing rates between hotels as well. Many places never mention it anywhere until you are checking out and paying your bill. Some places even try to hide it when asked directly about it over the phone. One place told us they didn't have a "resort fee" at all. No, we found out they wound up having a "facilities fee."

Complain now and complain loudly before they start charging for bed sheets. They may not give you a discount for bringing your own.

Latest Skiing Conditions Information

LEBANON, N.H., Mar. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Following are the latest skiing conditions information as supplied by SnoCountry Mountain Reports as of March 14, 2006.

                      SNOW CONDITION DEFINITIONS & TERMS

This glossary of terms is used by all ski areas when they report to SCR. The code allows for communication with skiers in a universal language.

NOTE: The standard abbreviations next to each definition reflect the way ski reports are communicated in print (newspapers).

continued

Winter Olympics Closes, Vancouver Hotels Prepare

The 2006 Winter Olympics closed in Torino Italy on Sunday February 26th. The focus quickly turns to the 2010 Winter Olympics and Vancouver. Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada, is the host for the next run for golds in the snow. Many like to prepare their travel plans as soon as possible but it is still early for online bookings. Hotels generally only take bookings for up to one year in advance. And you won't find any online travel websites going out that far. If you feel you must somehow make your reservations this far ahead, your only hope is to call a hotel direct and see what special rates preparations they will be making.

2,000 evacuated in Disneyland hotel fire

2,300 guests were evacuated from the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel after a Christmas tree caught fire in the lobby. The hotel is in the famous Anaheim, California amusement park.

The blaze broke out at about 3 a.m. local time as the artificial, 35 foot tall tree caught fire. Only two minor injuries were reported. Guests were allowed to return to their rooms within hours as the hotel had only sustainted some water and smoke damage.

Disney officials are offering a free night's stay to all of the evacuated guests.

Arizona Motels Harboring Illegal Aliens

Thirteen owners of six motels on Main Street in Mesa, Arizona were brought up on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants

Authorities said the owners rented to undercover federal agents posing as migrant smugglers and coached them on concealing their activities. They would tell the agents to register under false names, rent multiple rooms and where to park their vehicles in less obvious places.

Owners of the Kiva Lodge, Hiway Host, Majestic Guest Inn, Westernaire, Centebar Suites and Apartments and the Roadrunner helped organized the human smuggling operation. We have of course removed all of these hotels from AllStays.com. We also should note that the Roadrunner has since been sold and the new owners were not involved in the smuggling.

As the U.S. government continues to virtually ignore illegal immigration and the widespread negative effects it has on their country, Arizona is the busiest illegal entry point along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Southern Arizona ranchers need to bear arms just to go to their mailbox and not get killed on an average day.

Hotel Bombings in Amman, Jordan

Three hotels were bombed almost simultaneously in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday, November 9th. A bomber at the Radisson SAS hotel may have walked into a hall where a wedding reception was getting underway. Another bomber blew himself up in the glass and marble lobby of the Grand Hyatt. And at the Days Inn, a suicide bomber may have detonated his explosives early when he was stopped for questioning by security guards. These three hotels and now others are under intense security. The threat has lead to increased security at other hotels in high profile cities around the world. If you are going to affected hotels, please call ahead to get the current status.

Riots in France Disturb Peaceful Tourism

Tourists are still going to France, but are now being urged by more and more countries to avoid riot areas, especially at night.

The list of foreign governments urging tourists to exercise caution in their visits to France is growing, with Australia, Austria, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, United States, Russia and Hungary all have issued warnings to avoid riot-hit areas.

The best tip right now is to do research on your hotel location compared to the news reports of the riots, making sure you are in a still safe area.

Violence has not reached major tourist sights like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and other museums, and Versailles to the west.

According to the U.S. Embassy's warning about the "extremely violent" riots, mentioned that the closest many tourists may get to the riots is the airport train ride from Charles de Gaulle into the city. This service may be disrupted at times when it passes near the riot areas. Alternatives are the buses and taxis.

Southwest Airlines changes obscenity policy mid-flight

A female passenger was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight recently for wearing a T- shirt that had an expletive and images of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice.

Southwest rules allow the airline to deny boarding to any passenger whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive." However, they only let it become a problem after passenger complaints during the flight. Halfway through a paid for trip, she was forced to either turn her shirt inside out or leave.

Freedom of speech doesn't always apply 30,000 feet in the sky.

Over 9,500 Special Rates Added

AllStays.com special rate hotel inventory now exceeds 30,000 properties with the addition of 9,500+ AllStays Discount Rate hotels. You, our customer now have access to the most comprehensive inventory of merchant rate hotels in the world. More discounted rates than Expedia(tm). More than Hotels.com.

This latest expansion in listings includes thousands of additional properties in Europe and many other destinations, from the United States to the Middle East. These new properties include resorts, airport hotels, small independent properties, and boutique and luxury hotels.

The rates on these properties are discounted by at least 10% from the standard published rates, so your pocketbook is bound to appreciate the value at these properties... Multiple languages are also supported for these new properties, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, and Danish.

New U.S. Travel Restrictions

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will require all travelers to and from the Americas, the Caribbean and Bermuda to have a passport or other accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. The implementation schedule is as follows:

• Dec. 31, 2005 - All travel to or from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America.
• Dec. 31, 2006 - All air and sea travel to or from Mexico and Canada.
• Dec. 31, 2007 - All air, sea and land border crossings.

Businesses most affected will most likely be those in border towns and cruise lines. In places such as Windsor, businesses depend heavily on short term travelers, for a day, a night or even a weekend. It's casinos and restaurants rely heavily on Americans but border security, lines and delays will most likely keep those travelers at home or choose another fun spot.

Previously, you didn't need a passport to go on a cruise. You could book one last minute on a great deal and take off with a birth certificate. That will change.

New electronic passports (see next article here) present a whole other issue of problems and privacy. What happens when the electronic machine readers fail while you are in a border line? Do they wait for the system to reboot? New batteries? Will they go back to a human scan of the document? What procedure will they everyone properly trained to follow?

What happens when enterprising individuals scan persons going on a cruise, take your identity and go clean out your house while they know you are gone for 7 days? Far fetched? If you are nervous about being an American in a hostile country (or one we are hostile to), the enemy has a way of finding out who you are for sure. Anyone with a internet connection or a private detective license can find out information on you once they have your name and birth date. And you lose control of that information when it is broadcast to the world.

Encryption? Data security? We've heard the news about hackers and bank information leaks and viruses. Your passport won't be any safer. If a human can code it, someone else can break it.

This doesn't stop anyone from walking through the desert or over a mountain. If you were sneaking into a country with ten relatives and a dirty bomb, would you really go through a security checkpoint? A sort of band-aid, this change only treats a scratch, not the object that caused the scratch in the first place. Changing the way we monitor a boder stop only restricts those that follow the laws from the beginning.

Getting a passport

• For passport information, United States citizens can visit the State Department's travel website www.travel.state.gov, or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center: 1-877-4USA-PPT; TDD/TTY: 1-888-874-7793.

• Allow 6-8 weeks for processing of your passport application. If you need to travel urgently and require a passport sooner, visit http://www.travel.state.gov for additional information.

• Peak passport processing is between January and July. For faster service, apply between August and December.

• To obtain a passport for the first time, you must go in person to one of 6,000 passport acceptance facilities located throughout the United States with two photographs of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and a valid form of photo identification such as a driver's license.

• Acceptance facilities include many federal, state and probate courts, post offices, some public libraries and a number of county and municipal offices. There are also 13 regional passport agencies, which serve customers who are traveling within two weeks, or who need foreign visas for travel. Appointments are required in such cases.

• You also must apply in person if your expired U.S. passport is not in your possession; if your previous U.S. passport has expired and was issued more than 15 years ago; or if your previous U.S. passport was issued when you are under 16 your currently valid U.S. passport has been lost of stolen.

• You can obtain the application form on-line, at http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms.

• You may prove U.S. citizenship with a previous U.S. passport or a certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state. If; a consular report of birth abroad or certification of birth; a naturalization certificate; a certificate of citizenship

• You can renew by mail if your most recent passport is available and undamaged; you received the passport within the past 15 years; you were over age 16 when it was issued; and you still have the same name, or can legally document your name change. If your passport has been, altered or damaged, you cannot apply by mail: You must apply in person.

• First passport fees: age 16 and older, $97; under 16, $82. Renewals: $67. Expedited service: an additional $60.

Source: U.S. Department of State

Hilton Daytona Beach Renovation

Hilton Hotels Corporation today announced the opening of the first phase of the new Hilton Daytona Beach Ocean Walk Village. The property, which will have 742 rooms when the second phase opens in early summer, is undergoing a $20 million refurbishment process in order to become a Hilton, and will bring renewed vitality to the Ocean Walk Village vacation and entertainment district. The dramatic renovation of the property focuses on maintaining its traditional Floridian style while modernizing the guest experience and taking full advantage of the hotel's beachfront location. The lobby has been reconfigured to offer views of the ocean.

Mariott Replaces 628,000 Beds

Hotel company Marriott International Inc. plans to replace 628,000 beds by the end of the year to add more pillows, softer sheets and better mattresses.

The hotel operator said Tuesday the project will cost $190 million and use 30 million yards of fabric. The beds will be changed at about 2,400 hotels worldwide operating under eight different Marriott brand names.

The new linens will include 300-thread-count sheets, down comforters to replace traditional bedspreads and more pillows. The bedding will be thicker and the duvets more stylish.

Marriott said it surveyed 1,000 guests about the change, and most said they were looking for more stylish and comfortable bedding in their rooms.

Marriott's move comes as hotel chains try to one-up each other with plush sheets, comfy mattresses and big pillows in an effort to give guests a taste of luxury hotels for affordable prices.

Last year, the mid-priced chain Hampton Inn invested $80 million in new bedding. Radisson Hotels is replacing 90,000 beds at its properties.

Westin Hotels and Resorts started the rush in 1999 with the "Heavenly Bed," bedding meant to move away from the institutional feel of some rooms and give guests more luxurious accommodations.

Customers soon contacted Westin about ordering the beds for their own homes, prompting the company to strike a deal with manufacturers. In 2003, the company sold $4.9 million of "Heavenly" comforters, sheets and pillows.