Gaddafi’s kid on the hook for half million dollar Italian hotel bill

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Have you ever stiffed the hotel on the bill? They might be able to slap it on your credit card while you’re making a getaway, but a few thousand dollars is easy to recover. When the tab starts creeping toward half a million dollars, though, courts start getting involved … especially in Italy and especially when your father is a Libyan dictator.

Saadi Gaddafi, whose dad is Muammar, dropped €392,000 for a 40-day stay at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, near Portofino. In fairness, he also had his entourage with him – personal trainer, bodyguards, secretaries … you know the drill. It takes a lot of people to keep a dictator’s son on the go. Instead of making things right at the front desk on his way out, Gaddafi left a black SUV in the parking lot. According to local media, it’s still there.

This may seem like irresponsible behavior for a world leader’s son, even if he is only from Libya. At the time, though, he was wrapping up his career as a soccer player in Italy, so he had to party in a manner appropriate to his profession. And he did have his fun. According to the Guardian:

After signing in 2003 for Serie A side Perugia, Gaddafi joined Udinese in 2005 and Sampdoria in 2006, playing in a total of two matches in Italy and failing a drugs test. When not in training, he made the Italian gossip columns when he reportedly crashed a yacht into a harbour wall in Sardinia. He is now reportedly forging a new career as a film mogul.

The hotel didn’t rush into court. Rather, it worked the usual channels with a country that has solid relations with Italy:

Corriere della Sera reported that prior to taking legal action, the Grand Hotel Excelsior contacted the Libyan embassy in Italy which had paid previous bills on behalf of Saadi Gaddafi, only to be told that it would not cover the cost of the stay until it was told to do so by the Libyan government. On Friday, an Italian judge ordered Gaddafi to €5,000 in legal expenses in addition to his bill.

Time to sell some more plutonium, I guess. I’m sure there’s someone out there with half a million dollars and a flux capacitor to feed.


[photo by StartAgain via Flickr]

Sanibel Marriott wants your pocket change for extra night

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Pretty pissed about the proposed 2-cent increase in stamp prices? If you’re among the Luddites still using dead-tree communication, I imagine it’s pretty annoying. To get some relief from this postal madness, head on down to the Sanibel Harbour Marriott Resort & Spa in Fort Myers, Florida.

Through the end of the month, for a three-night stay between August 22, 2010 and the end of September, you can book your third merely by putting your 2 cents in. Yep, a pair of pennies extends your stay. Since room rates start at a mere $159, the entire experience won’t drain your bank account. Remember to use discount code PK3 when booking online.

Hotel employees nailed in $20 million airline ticket scam

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The feds just threw down indictments against 38 people accused of pushing fraudulent airline tickets at hefty discounts. They were slashing between $100 and $200, usually, from the normal price of a (real) ticket. And at least two of them worked in hotels, where they were accused of swiping credit card and debit card information to keep the con afloat. Among the charges are: conspiracy, credit card theft and identity theft. The rings appear to have begun in 2001.

How did it work? In Los Angeles, according to USA Today:

The government’s 25-page indictment against Jason Burks and eight other defendants says that Raun Lauderdale Jr. was one of the people who would obtain stolen credit card and debit card information and sell it to Burks, who would then use it to fraudulently buy airline tickets. Lauderdale worked at an unidentified hotel in Long Beach, Calif. On one particular day in September 2009, Burks allegedly used a stolen American Express card number to buy $3,466.03 worth of airline tickets – an Alaska Airlines ticket from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and three US Airways tickets for travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans, records show. Prosecutors say this ring operated from July 25, 2007 to May 14, 2009.

And in Atlanta:

The government’s 31-page indictment against Steven James Palmer, based in Brooklyn, and nine other defendants based in cities such as Orlando, Los Angeles and Atlanta names another hotel worker. According to the document, Alexander Lewis, 25, of McDonough, Ga., stole credit card and debt card numbers from his jobs at unidentified Atlanta hotels. Lewis also went by an alias: “Mike Gotti,” the indictment says. Prosecutors say this ring operated between August 2008 and March 27, 2010.

The alleged scammers would pick up the tickets online with stolen credit card info and use text messages or e-mail to push discount codes to their customers, which could then be parlayed into boarding passes. To stay under the radar, the bookings were kept close to departure times. Advertising was kept to a minimum, and word of mouth was used to generate new “business.”

[photo by abardwell via Flickr]

Scammer convicted for trying to sell London Ritz

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Got a few extra bucks to invest? Well, be wary of truck drivers selling hotels. Of course, if I need to tell you this, you should stop dining on paste for lunch.

Not only is the hospitality industry going to be under pressure for the rest of the year, which makes such an investment difficult, but there’s always the chance that the deal isn’t real. This happened in London, where Anthony Lee hit up some of the market’s top real estate pros for cash to buy the London Ritz.

A jury just convicted Lee, an unemployed truck driver, of trying to move the Ritz for a mere $380 million – a deal, when you think about it – and claiming to represent Frederick and David Barclay, the off-the-radar billionaire brothers who own the property.

Before getting busted, Lee’s efforts nabbed him $1.5 million, a down payment from property broker Terence Collins. This was far better than borrowing scratch from friends and family to pay the rent, which had been a problem for Lee.

So, why did Collins fall for it? Hell, he had a shot at one of the top hotels in the city at a crazy price. He rolled the dice with a million and a half on the table … and the wrong number came up.

[photo by takomabibelot via Flickr]

A seasoned traveler’s top ten hotel peeves

by Annie Scott on


Hotels are marvelous things. For a price, you can eat and sleep there, bathe, do whatever you do in your personal time and even order services like food and massages delivered to your door. Still, little things can spoil even the best hotel experiences. Even if you end up saying that, overall, you had a terrific time, you won’t be able to forget that niggling little thing when a friend asks you for a recommendation. You’ll say, “Well, I stayed at such-and-such, but …”

Here are my Top 10 Hotel Peeves in no particular order:

1. Stained sheets.

Stained sheets should be thrown out, not put on the bed. Would you put your mama to bed on stained sheets? Your local thrift store won’t even accept them as a donation. You can’t expect your guests to be cool with the mystery orange spot (see below).

2. Nasty shower curtains.

Shower curtains in general are a liability. They stick to your body, which means they stuck to the last guest’s body, too. And when you see a little mildew, it definitely puts a damper on your experience. They need to be replaced a lot, to the point where installing shower doors is probably more cost-effective.
3. Paying for internet.

If it’s free at the Econolodge, and it is, it should be free in your five-star hotel, too. Way to nickel-and-dime your guests, hotel industry. You know who you are.

4. Shoddy paint jobs.

If the paint is on the tile, on the ceiling or anywhere else it’s not supposed to be, they really should have fixed it before charging you to stay in that room. Looking at it. It makes you worry that it was a last-minute cover-up job; like there was blood or mold on the walls and they had to paint it fast.

5. Lack of an amenity.

There’s nothing like discovering the hotel doesn’t have something you didn’t think to ask if they had. Examples of this include laundry service, room service after 10 PM and a way to print your boarding pass, among other things.

6. Pilled up bedspreads.

It’s just irritating.

7. Ugly furnishings they try to pretend are “beautiful.”

Taste is a personal thing, but hotels, you might want to take a survey amongst your closest friends when going for a bold statement. Yes, giant paper mache monkeys in your lobby might make someone remember your hotel, but it doesn’t exactly say “we know what we’re doing.”

8. Visible crap that says “we don’t care.”

I mean, sometimes, it’s like they’re not even trying. Case in point:

9. Lack of hair conditioner.

I am completely and utterly disappointed when there is no hair conditioner. For women and some men, it is a basic necessity. A two-in-one hair conditioner and shampoo is a step in the right direction, but it’s not great. I’ve seen this in hotels up to the four-star level. It means my first experience on that trip will be finding a store to buy some dang conditioner. Not. Convenient.

10. Unfriendly service.

Even if everything is “perfect” and nothing went “wrong,” unfriendly service will keep me from returning to a hotel. The hospitality industry’s first priority, beyond the health and safety of their guests, should always be being a good host. If it’s not, then there are probably a lot of other things wrong at the hotel that you don’t even know about. Besides, even if you’re not a hotel worker, you should always, at the very least, be nice. Common courtesy. I don’t care if I don’t get a broad smile from every employee I pass, but no hotel guest should ever feel like an inconvenience (unless they just like, broke the swimming pool — that’s on them).

[Dirty hotel toilet and other photos: Annie Scott]