Hotels

Arriba , arriba! The economy remains sluggish, but some airlines are expanding services and celebrating at more than 30,000 feet. Virgin America, the 2-year-old airline based in San Francisco, said Tuesday that it would add nonstop flights from California to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. The airline will begin Nov. 18 with two daily nonstops each from Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. Not to be outdone, JetBlue Airways announced the same day that it would also add daily nonstop service from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale, beginning Nov. 17. JetBlue has run a daily nonstop between Long Beach Airport and Fort Lauderdale since 2003.

Boulder City touts itself as the anti-Las Vegas, and with ample reason. Take its throwback downtown near a still-humbling Hoover Dam, and a sense of history so deep that residents often rattle off dates: 1931, dam construction begins; 1935, construction ends. Local laws have banned casinos, curbed the number of bars and slowed growth to the pace of a Mojave Desert tortoise. In fact, Boulder City's wariness of development -- it allows only 120 building permits a year -- has mostly shielded it from the recession.

Financial challenges are mounting for developer Lowe Enterprises, which has received a default notice from another major lender on Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes and has stopped making mortgage payments on its Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City. Brentwood-based Lowe's money problems underscore the dramatic change in the fortunes of hotel owners since the recession began, driving down occupancy and room rates, according to hospitality industry experts. About 275 California hotels have received notices of default or already faced foreclosure by their lenders, said consultant Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group.

When you stay at a Doubletree Hotel, little sets it apart from other mid-priced business/leisure hotels except the warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in -- more than 10 million a year, by the chain's count. But it's not the promise of a chewy nibble that's likely to catch your attention when you enter Doubletree's Arctic Club in downtown Seattle. Rather, it's the property itself: an immaculately restored, nearly century-old social lodge so specific in its Gold Rush details that you want to pull down one of the many vintage maps from the lobby walls, jump on a dog sled and head for the Klondike.

I never quite got anime. Yes, I watched the Japanese animated series "Speed Racer" growing up, and I'm impressed by Hayao Miyazaki, the director of the anime films "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro." But if I happen to visit a comic book store, I gravitate to Marvel and DC, steering far clear of the anime-style Japanese comic books known as manga. A newish San Francisco hotel was about to challenge my thinking and prove what a global pop culture phenomenon anime is. Two years ago, boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre reopened the Best Western Miyako Inn in Japantown as the anime-infused Hotel Tomo.

After a day's work cleaning one hotel room after another, Maria Valdivia says she's often too fatigued to play with her three children once she gets home. "It pains me to tell my kids I don't have time for them," said Valdivia, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach. "But sometimes I'm so tired and so achy that I'm just worn out." Valdivia was among the hundreds of hotel workers and labor activists who took to the streets of Long Beach last week to launch a national campaign dubbed Hope for Housekeepers, designed to spotlight what union leaders call substandard working conditions at Hyatt hotels nationwide.

A sea of people wearing hard hats and reflective vests moved in and out, up and down among the slot machines, still covered with drop cloth. Everyone had a role to play, almost like a well-choreographed, contemporary ballet. But instead of brass and winds, there was the discord of drills, circular saws and beeping electric vehicles. Across a grimy marble floor, a woman stood beside what will soon be the registration desk of Aria, one of four hotels that will anchor CityCenter, the $8.5 billion, mixed-use development south of Bellagio on the Strip.

While hotels across the country continue to struggle with slumping occupancy rates and sliding revenue, industry data released Tuesday show signs of improvement in several regions, including Southern California. The hotel occupancy rate nationwide dropped 5.4 percentage points to 59.8% in the first week of October, compared with the same period last year, while revenue per available room fell 12% to $59.28, according to Smith Travel Research Global, an industry research firm. The numbers are the latest in a series of reports chronicling one of the worst slumps in decades for the hotel industry.

The humble downtown Los Angeles Holiday Inn will undergo a $10-million renovation and a name change designed to capitalize on its position near Staples Center and the L.A. Live entertainment complex. When the work is completed this spring, the 195-room hotel will be renamed the Luxe City Center Hotel, part of an upscale, Los Angeles-based hotel chain, Luxe Hotel officials said Tuesday. The hotel will remain open during the renovation work. With a new name and face lift, the four-star Luxe City Center Hotel is expected to fit better among the glitzy new restaurants, clubs, museums and movie theaters that now border Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center, said Jane Coloccia, a spokeswoman for Luxe Hotels.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. sued Hilton Hotels Corp. and two of its executives, saying Hilton stole confidential information from Starwood and used it to develop the new Denizen brand of hotels. Hilton said the suit was without merit and would be vigorously contested.