Marco Island Mariott Resort & Spa

He suffered severe and permanent brain damage, as a result of the fall. His lawsuit states that the bartender knowingly served alcohol to Fenton even though he was already intoxicated, and the same thing had happened the previous day.

According to Naples News, “Fenton is seeking damages for injuries, pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, hospital expenses, medical and nursing care treatment, loss of earnings and the ability to earn money, loss of the ability to enjoy life, and aggravation of a previously existing condition..”

Michael Fenton’s case is not an isolated incident. On December 20, 2007, two police officers in Lexington, KY broke up a large fight at a holiday party at the Crowne Plaza-Campbell House. Officer Randall Combs injured his shoulder and Officer Derrick Wallace dislocated his thumb. They filed a lawsuit in December,  2008 against Crowne Plaza and Shepherd Communications Inc., the company that threw the party, for for serving too much alcohol.

Are individual police officers allowed to file lawsuits if they get injured in the line of duty? I don’t know, but if it catches on, there’s a lot of people going to sign up to join the police force and get themselves injured.

And it’s not just about excess alcohol. Bedbug lawsuits are one of the easiest ways to win a judgment against a hotel. A number of New York motels, where bedbugs are far more widespread than in other cities, have simply closed down rather than risk a lawsuit. Hoteliers today are facing lawsuits for everything from sprinklers to carpets.

Svetlana & Yuriy Orishchenko, from Brooklyn, NY paid $20,000 to get married on August 9 2008 in an outdoor ceremony at the Hilton Garden Inn in Staten Island, NY. Swetlana was halfway down the aisle with her parents when the sprinklers went off (accidentally), and soaked the wedding guests. After 15 to 20 minutes, the wedding resumed and went off without further incident. The hotel management did whatever they could to lessen the damage, with clean towels, offers to take the dresses to the cleaners, and even offered the couple $5,000 as compensation. But the Orishchenkos filed a lawsuit early this year, and they want $300,000.

During the Golden Globe Awards recently held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA, Monica Matulich, who runs a PR company, took a fall on the red carpet. In a lawsuit filed in L.A. County Superior Court, she’s suing the Beverly Hilton Hotel, AOL Time Warner, Time Inc., In Style Magazine, Tom Ford Design and American Turf and Carpet.

If you find this interesting, then you might want to read this and this.

Photo courtesy Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort.

The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) has come out with a study which says that tourism promotion by Long Beach is responsible for fostering poverty.

The study – A Tale of Two Cites: How Long Beach’s Investment in Downtown Tourism Has Contributed to Poverty Next Door – says that Long Beach has spent in excess of $750 million in subsidies for the tourism industry, and $100 million since the early 1980s on hotels alone. (goodjobslongbeach.com)

According to the study, workers in Long Beach make 13.6% less than their counterparts doing the same jobs at hotels and motels in Anaheim, 12.2% less than their counterparts in the LAX area, 25.4% less than their counterparts in Santa Monica and 26.9% less than their counterparts in Downtown Los Angeles.

For a bit of background, consider that LAANE’s daily schedule  includes making life miserable for at least one of the few remaining non unionized hotels in Los Angeles. And they usually take down these hotels one or two at a time, with a potent mix of placard and banner waving marches and sit-ins, class action lawsuits filed by LAANE approved lawyers on behalf of the targeted hotel’s workers, and a media blitz.

But some bright spark at LAANE probably decided that it would be a lot easier to raise wages across the board if they threw the book at the City and blamed the growth of tourism for creating low wage jobs which they say has engendered poverty. The plan here is to hold the City responsible and make them put pressure on the hotels to hike wages and health insurance coverage for workers. This would have the practical effect of unionizing all the hotels in Long Beach in one stroke.

LAANE conviniently focuses only on the wages as a form of return for the City’s investment, while completely discounting the positive impact of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent every year by tourists on the local economy.

Leaving aside the authority (or lack thereof) of the study, if you focus on who gets what out of this fight, a few surprising things pop up. First, that it’s in the City’s interest to promote industries like tourism and hospitality, instead of manufacturing, considering the higher income from sales and room taxes. On the other hand, manufacturing jobs provide higher wages and benefits for workers, while providing less income for the City from taxes.

Secondly, LAANE’s voodoo economics report is no laughing matter. It won’t raise any wages, but it could guilt trip the City, at a time when the recession has hit industrial workers very hard, into stopping promotion of the tourism industry and start focusing more on industries which offer higher wages to workers.

Lastly, it would be ironic if the LAANE study succeeds in its effort to kill the tourism industry in Long Beach. The hotel workers end up unemployed, the City loses the tax revenues, and it puts hundreds of tourism service providers out of business. 

Photo by krcla via flickr (creative commons).

Jalapeno writing

If you are interested in more than just travel, I recommend you skip down this page and open a few links.

Go direct. Take a little tour of the blogosphere where bloggers write for themselves and reveal their lives and interests with unedited opinions and unwavering honesty from insights into managing a mid-life crisis, to being a foodie and yes, some kid and family travel tales too.  You will find all kinds of tones from sweet and kind to piquant and sharp.

Still curious? For everything you wanted to know about each of our blogs including insights from each UpTake editor about their blog, their writers and their plans for the future, check out their intro pages and meet the UpTake writers:

• Whit on The Vacation Blog tells about his bloggers’ of leisure.
• Gudrun on the Attractions Blog gives an intro to the Attraction blog writers and where they live to prove we are really local.
• Sebastien discusses beaches, beach bars, everything beachy. I think he and Barbara are a little obsessed.
• Colleen promises details, stories and off-kilter anecdotes on hotels.
• Nancy offers the best lodging tips in the U.S.A on the lodging blog.
• Alison shares savory excursions on the Restaurants blog.
• Travel Industry News, this blog, is our corporate blog and the UpTake corporate team will be offering our opinions on the travel industry, travel and technology and events.

I suggest you take a little trek through the UpTake blogs for some new takes on travel.

UpTake Launches Travel Blog Network

We proudly announce the launch of UpTake’s new Travel Blog Network today.  The blog network helps travelers find vacation information across six travel categories, including attractions, beaches, hotels, lodging, restaurants and travel industry news. The network, a new addition to UpTake’s corporate blog, provides in-depth, complementary information to the site’s travel content and search engine. The UpTake blog network supports the company’s mission to improve search by offering information from local travel experts and writers.

UpTake Beaches Blog	UpTake Attractions Blog	UpTake Hotels Blog
UpTake Restaurants Blog	UpTake Lodging Blog	UpTake Travel Industry Blog

Meet UpTake’s Editors & Writers

We have five lead editors and a team of twenty-nine contributors. Each blog has its own tone and style which is determined by their editors and offers insights and opinions on day-trip excursions or longer vacation options in the writer’s local community. The lead editors are:

• Whit Honea, a professional writer and blogger on many of the web’s most popular blogs is the lead editor on the Vacations’ blog.
• Gudrun Enger, an independent blogger helped launch the original UpTake blog and is now the editor for the Attractions’ blog.
• Sebastien Tobler, a videographer and blogger combines his love of travel, beaches and his story-writing skill to create the Beaches’ blog.
• Colleen Lindesay is a popular writer for several blogs and leads a team of bloggers with suggestions and ideas on how to improve your next hotel stay on the Hotels’ Blog.
• Nancy Brown, a well known travel writer, built a team to offer suggestions about resorts, alternative lodging and campgrounds on the Lodging blog.
• Alison Osborne, an UpTake employee, suggests savory restaurant excursions, dining and food experiences on the Restaurants’ blog.
• UpTake senior executives contribute travel technology and industry news to the Travel Industry News.

If you have a story idea or need more information about a particular blog you can contact them via email:

UpTake Editors’ Email Addresses:

• Vacations’ blog editor (vacations.blogeditor at uptake.com)
• Attractions’ blog editor (attractions.blogeditor at uptake.com)
• Beaches’ blog editor(beaches.blogeditor at uptake.com)
• Hotels’ blog editor (hotels.blogeditor at uptake.com)
• Lodging’s blog editor (lodging.blogeditor at uptake.com)
• Restaurants’ blog  editor (restaurants.blogeditor at uptake.com

Blog Marketing Advisory Board

Prior to launching the blog network, UpTake sought the advice of three top bloggers who now comprise the company’s Blog Marketing Advisory Board, Stefania Pomponi Butler, Pam Mandel and Sheila Scarborough. UpTake also formed a content partnership with the Traveling Mamas who write for the network and provide periodic guidance about content and blog improvements.

UpTake’s travel search and discovery engine continues on its promise of being complementary to existing travel sites by providing relevant summaries and direct links to partner sites for complete, accurate results. By being complementary to its partners, UpTake helps their products get discovered and travelers find relevant vacation information more easily. The new blog network continues on this promise by incorporating travel information from sites and blogs across the Web, giving users a truly comprehensive online travel resource. If you are an independent blogger or a blog network, please contact pat at UpTake.com about potential partnership opportunities.

Here is a sampling of a few posts reflecting the content of the blogs from popular destinations to attractions far beyond the tourist track:

Attractions:  Backroads of Ohio

Beaches: Best City Beach on Gulf of Mexico, Clearwater Florida

Hotels:  San Ysidro Ranch Named  Forbes’ Top Hotel in America

Lodging:  Budget Lodging Gone Bad; Circus, Circus, Las Vegas, Nevada

Restaurants:  Best Upscale Restaurants in Santa Monica

Interested in reading more about travel in the U.S.? Please subscribe to our RSS Feed:

• Uptake Attractions Blog
• Uptake Beaches Blog RSS
• Uptake Hotels Blog RSS
• Uptake Lodging Blog RSS
• Uptake Restaurants Blog RSS
• An Honest Take on the Travel Industry RSS

We hope you will take a tour through our blogs when you plan your next trip.