Hotel

The Liaison Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., offers a dine-and-stay package that will appeal to budget-minded travelers as well as fans of chef Art Smith. Stay a night and receive up to $100 dining credit each night that's good at Smith's Art and Soul restaurant at the hotel. The deal: The Gourmet Getaway package starts at $249 a night plus tax and includes a $50 dining credit per day per adult, a signed cookbook and a s'mores kit to use while sitting around the hotel's patio fire pit. Smith, a James Beard award winner, is best known for having served as chef to the governor of Florida and to Oprah Winfrey.

Vancouver Island , Canada, is within easy reach of Seattle . Now Clipper Vacations makes it easy and cheap. Fall and winter getaways with a ferry and hotel package start at $99 a person for an overnight stay. Go for fall colors, holiday lights or anytime in between. The deal: The Big Colorful Sale includes a round-trip ferry crossing from Seattle to Victoria and one night at the Harbour Towers for $99 a person. Two nights start at $123 per person. Prices are based on double occupancy and exclude tax and fees.

I read Christopher Reynolds's article ("Why Wailea?," July 11) with great interest but must disagree with his conclusion that the Maui Inter-Continental Resort is still a few paces behind other hotels in the area. My husband and I have been to Wailea three times since 1989 and we stay at the Inter-Continental. True, the rooms are not the greatest if one is judging decor, but our room was large and the service excellent. I consider the Grand Wailea Resort ugly, attempting to compete with the natural beauty of the landscape.

Give the people what they want. That was the sentiment behind a $120-million redesign effort launched last year by Red Roof Inn at nearly 121 hotels across the country. The hotel improvements were made based on comments the Columbus, Ohio-based hotel chain received from thousands of guests staying in hotels in Texas, Georgia and Ohio. And it appears that the upgrades have been a success. The hotels that got the face lifts have seen a 10.6% increase in sales so far, compared to a 6% increase among all 350 hotels in the hotel chain, according to Red Roof Inn. Based on the earlier guest comments, the hotel chain replaced in-room carpeting with hardwood floors, swapped out Formica counter tops with granite and added outlets above the night stand, among other improvements.

The Mark Hopkins hotel at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco opened its doors on Dec. 4, 1926. The landmark hotel, now part of the Intercontinental chain, sits at the location of what was once the mansion of California railroad magnate Mark Hopkins. Hopkins never lived to see the home completed, and it later burned down in a fire caused by the 1906 earthquake. Now the hotel turns 85 in style with a few celebratory deals at its 19th-floor Top of the Mark lounge.

Here's a deal for those who want to sample a high-end hotel and don't mind a little muss and fuss. Loews Coronado Bay Resort in Coronado, Calif., is offering guests 25% off best available room rates while it adds touches that include a two-story chandelier and a floating bar. The deal:  Renovation Rates start at $119 plus tax -- a low price for this San Diego-area waterfront hotel. Loews has spent $12 million in the last three years on updates that will continue through early June, according to a statement.

A couple has sued a hotel because they say an employee walked in their room unannounced on their wedding night and interrupted them while they were having sex. William and Tonya Parker claim in their suit, filed earlier this month, that the incident has made their sex life dysfunctional, caused them to suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome and curtailed their sexual intimacy. They are seeking more than $10,000 in damages.

If you have trouble getting a good night's sleep at a hotel, the folks at the Benjamin hotel in Manhattan think they have just what you need to get your 40 winks. First of all, the 209-room hotel offers a pillow menu with a choice of 12 pillows, including hypo-allergenic and water-filled types. The hotel also offers white noise machines that play soothing sounds to put guests' mind at ease. And the hotel's spa can send a masseuse to your room. But the Benjamin took its sleep program one step further last week by introducing a “work-down call.” A work-down call is the opposite of a wake-up call.

The U.S. Grant in San Diego and the Titanic are of the same era and style. The hotel in the city's Gaslamp Quarter opened in 1910, two years before the ship set off on its tragic maiden voyage. With a price tag of $1.9 million, the hotel, too, became a symbol of luxury. The Grant marks the centennial of the ship's sinking with a package meant to evoke the glamour of the storied liner. It includes a $100 dining credit and admission to see the Titanic artifacts exhibition at the San Diego Natural History Museum . The deal: The Legend & Luxury of the Titanic package starts at $299 plus tax per night.

The owner of the Century Plaza hotel Thursday outlined a $2-billion proposal that calls for rehabilitating the Century City landmark as hotel space and condos and building two 46-story, mixed-use towers and a public plaza. The proposal, contained in a draft environmental impact report, marks a victory for preservationists, whose staunch opposition to initial plans to raze the concave modernist structure persuaded developer Next Century Associates to reconsider. The project would maintain the hotel's eligibility for listing as a city historic-cultural monument.