Four Seasons Hotels Inc

Saudi Prince May Get Stake in Four Seasons: Four Seasons Hotels Inc. said Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud offered to acquire a 25% stake in the Toronto hotel chain for $122.1 million. Four Seasons Chairman Isadore Sharp also intends to sell to Prince al-Waleed, who bought 24% of the struggling Euro Disney theme park near Paris in June, a quarter of his personal holdings in the hotel operator for $22 a share.

The gig: As general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Mehdi Eftekari is in charge of one of the region's elite hotels. The Four Seasons on Doheny Drive serves business and leisure travelers with money to spend but is best known as a magnet for show-biz people working in movies, television and music. The hotel also is home to about half of all movie industry press junkets, where reporters fly in from all over the country to interview the stars of a new release and enjoy a day or two of luxury.

Saudi Prince Buys 25% of Four Seasons: Al Waleed ibn Talal ibn Abdulaziz al Saud made the tender offer for the Toronto-based group, which operates 44 luxury hotels in 19 countries. Four Seasons Hotels Inc. began searching in April for a major investor to prepare for founder Isadore Sharp's retirement in three to five years. Triples-Sharp Investments Ltd.

At the tranquil Four Seasons Resort Aviara north of San Diego, a heated struggle for control of the deluxe hotel's future is playing out in a rare public spat. The increasingly nasty tussle at the Carlsbad resort is indicative of tensions throughout the higher end of the hotel industry, as travelers cut way back on spending. At issue is the very definition of luxury.

An effort by founder Isadore Sharp to find a buyer for Four Seasons Hotels Inc. is expected to spark a bidding war among industry heavyweights seeking to boost their presence in the luxury lodging market. Potential suitors for the Toronto-based company include ITT Corp., Marriott International Inc. and cash-rich Asian firms such as New World Development Co., analysts say.

Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. said Monday that it has agreed to develop a 400-room luxury hotel with Four Seasons Hotels Inc. as part of a $700-million-plus resort complex it is planning for the Las Vegas Strip. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The proposed hotel, which Circus Circus will own and Four Seasons will manage, will be connected to a 4,000-room hotel-casino the Las Vegas-based company is planning to build on the site of the Hacienda Hotel & Casino.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and an investment firm owned by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates launched an offer for Four Seasons Hotels Inc. on Monday that proposed to take the Canadian luxury hotelier private. News of the bid from two of the world's richest men sent the company's stock up more than 29%, slightly topping the bid price of $82 a share in cash.

A $3.37-billion deal announced Monday by billionaires Bill Gates and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to buy the luxury Four Seasons Hotels Inc. underscores a frenzy by well-heeled investors to acquire hotels and lodging companies worldwide. The investment trend is the result of a worldwide economic boom that has sparked a surge in global demand for business and leisure travel, a sharp turnaround from the slump after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The gig: As general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Mehdi Eftekari is in charge of one of the region's elite hotels. The Four Seasons on Doheny Drive serves business and leisure travelers with money to spend but is best known as a magnet for show-biz people working in movies, television and music. The hotel also is home to about half of all movie industry press junkets, where reporters fly in from all over the country to interview the stars of a new release and enjoy a day or two of luxury.

Don't expect to check into the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday night. All 284 rooms are reserved, according to a discreet clerk, who volunteered only: "We have a high-security guest that night." On Tuesday, the 19-story hotel overlooking Newport Harbor was bustling with Secret Service agents and a White House advance team making preparations for a 25-hour stay in Orange County by President Bush.

I'VE discovered rehab lite. And like the motley crew of fallen politicians, overdosing rock stars and careening actors, I'm a better person for having checked in -- to a hotel. With the promise of helping its guests conquer bad habits and illness in sumptuous luxury, the new Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village offers a kind of halfway house for those of us who don't need (or want) full-time therapy, inpatient rehabilitation or personal trainers.

A $3.37-billion deal announced Monday by billionaires Bill Gates and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to buy the luxury Four Seasons Hotels Inc. underscores a frenzy by well-heeled investors to acquire hotels and lodging companies worldwide. The investment trend is the result of a worldwide economic boom that has sparked a surge in global demand for business and leisure travel, a sharp turnaround from the slump after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and an investment firm owned by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates launched an offer for Four Seasons Hotels Inc. on Monday that proposed to take the Canadian luxury hotelier private. News of the bid from two of the world's richest men sent the company's stock up more than 29%, slightly topping the bid price of $82 a share in cash.

At first glance, East Palo Alto seems an odd choice for a new Four Seasons luxury hotel, especially when it's right on top of a freeway. Come to think of it, it seems pretty odd at second glance, too. After all, East Palo Alto is a world away--even though it's just a block away--from Palo Alto, home of Stanford University and the birthplace of countless start-ups and venture capital firms that fueled the dot-com engine.

On the day before the Oscars, the most important person in Los Angeles is not the president of the academy or Harry Winston or even the guys from PricewaterhouseCoopers with their safe full of tantalizing envelopes. On the day before the Oscars, the most important person in Los Angeles is Grant Ponder, the director of pool services at the Four Seasons Hotel.

A certain kind of attentive urbanite who pores over the restaurant closures list was startled, stunned and finally bemused Tuesday to find that there--just down the alphabetic food chain from Alberta's Mexican Food and the American Golf Course Bar & Kitchen--was the unmistakable inclusion of . . . the Four Seasons Hotel. For "vermin infestation" last month--specifically, cockroaches. What? At the Four Seasons, that high-octane mecca of Hollywood deal makers?

At the tranquil Four Seasons Resort Aviara north of San Diego, a heated struggle for control of the deluxe hotel's future is playing out in a rare public spat. The increasingly nasty tussle at the Carlsbad resort is indicative of tensions throughout the higher end of the hotel industry, as travelers cut way back on spending. At issue is the very definition of luxury.

At first glance, East Palo Alto seems an odd choice for a new Four Seasons luxury hotel, especially when it's right on top of a freeway. Come to think of it, it seems pretty odd at second glance, too. After all, East Palo Alto is a world away--even though it's just a block away--from Palo Alto, home of Stanford University and the birthplace of countless start-ups and venture capital firms that fueled the dot-com engine.

Among those betting that St. Regis is coming are executives at the Ritz and at Orange County's other top luxury hotel, the Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach, which is undergoing a $10-million renovation of its own. Unlike the Ritz, the Four Seasons is foremost a business hotel. But it has always had many resort amenities, and carries Auto Club five-diamond and Mobil four-star ratings. Its renovation includes a $1.

The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel opened in 1984 as the chain's first resort hotel, but 60% of its guests nowadays are in business groups, creating challenges for managers--and grumbles from some leisure clients. Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report, a high-end travel newsletter devoted to "unspoiled places," asked in a recent brief item if the "classic Ritz" is "losing its edge," citing readers' comments about "hordes of groups" and "service that's not up to snuff."