Assisted Living Facility To Open Next To Gay Nude Hotel

The Palm Springs Architectural Advisory Committee has recommended approving a combined assisted living facility and retail project proposed for a vacant lot in the heart of the city’s uptown district — and next to a clothing-optional hotel.

Developers with Tappan Enterprises LLC said Monday they hope to break ground toward the end of the year on a 190-bed assisted living facility of suites, along with a beauty parlor and day spa open to the public, at 1000 N. Palm Canyon Drive.

Tappan’s three-story project would stand next to the gay-oriented clothing-optional Canyon Club Hotel, and the assisted-living facility developer plans to block views into the hotel’s pool area from the facility’s third-story with palm trees, architect Chris Sahlin said.

Chairman Paul Ortega said he worried the palm trees eventually would grow too tall – and no longer block views into Canyon Lodge’s pool. If the trees won’t work “there’s a number of different options that we can put into play,” Tappan Enterprises partner Tom Searles said after the meeting.

Owners at Canyon Club said they had “no complaints” about an assisted living facility next door.

Where Have All The Towels Gone?

The recent discovery of some 60 hotel towels in a police raid on a Netanya, Israel home seems to have caught everyone by surprise – except hotel managers, that is. 

Israelis, one Eilat hotel manager told the Israeli newspaper Ynet, “Simply love taking souvenirs from hotels. That way, they feel they got a little something extra for the money they spent.”

The difference between the Israeli vacationer and the foreign tourists is easy to spot, he said, thanks to the “towel-meter”: “When we have many foreign tourists in the hotel we do a lot of laundry. When Israelis are staying with us we do a lot of unpacking, to replace missing towels.”

According to hotels’ data, between 300,000 and 400,000 towels are stolen from hotels every year, amounting to millions of shekels in losses.

Other hotel items ranking high on the pilfering list are bathrobes, bathmats, shampoo bottles, linens and cutlery.

“People try and take anything that isn’t bolted down and sometimes even that doesn’t stop them,” another Eilat hotel manager said.

A third hotel manager had guests who dismantled the bathroom mirror and another found the pictures in the room missing.

Some hotels, like those belonging to the Isrotel Chain, are trying to fight the ugly phenomenon by placing security tags on towels – similar to those stores use on clothes – and informing their guests the their luggage may be subject to a search before they check out.

“If a buzzer goes off, the hotel security officer will take the guest aside, so not to create a scene, and try to find the cause,” Lior Raviv, vice president of Isrotel, told Ynet.

“We are willing to do anything to spare our guests any embarrassment or discomfort, but one must remember we’re talking about huge financial damages to the hotels.” 

Park Offers X-Rated Views Of Standard Hotel Guests

Some guests at a New York City hotel near an elevated park have been offering unobstructed views of themselves.

Guests at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan keep failing to close the curtains as they frolic naked in front of their rooms’ floor-to-ceiling windows, easily viewed from the High Line park below. The park recently opened atop an abandoned elevated rail line.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has called the hotel’s window action “unacceptable.”

Aaron Lipman works in the neighborhood and says the shows are “healthy and fun.” He says they’re like TV’s “Wild Kingdom.”

The hotel issued a statement saying its managers will try to “remind guests of the transparency” of the windows.

The hotel won an award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for best new building erected last year.

Gullible Couple Trashes Florida Hotel Room

Authorities say a prankster persuaded a married couple to smash their Florida hotel window after falsely telling them the room had a gas leak.

Police say a person claiming to be a front-desk clerk at an Orlando hotel convinced the couple to break a wall mirror and use a lamp to punch a hole through the wall. The couple also threw a mattress out the window, but a hotel manager came to the room before they could jump.

The manager told the couple there was no gas leak. The manager also said employees had received a memo from the hotel’s corporate office warning that dangerous pranks were being pulled at hotels in other states.

The prank cost about $5,000 in damages. Police say the couple were not arrested because they thought it was an emergency. The hotel has not asked them to pay.

The Next Vacation Hot Spot: Iraq

Iraq has received its first group of Western tourists since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said.

The group of eight holidaymakers — five Britons, two Americans and a Canadian — arrived on March 8 and toured Iraq’s landmark historic sites, including the Biblical city of Babylon, fabled home to the Hanging Gardens.

Their three week trip was organized by a British adventure tour operator, ministry spokesman Abdul-Zahra al-Telagani said, but he declined to name the company.

“This is the first group since the regime’s fall,” he said. “We expect these tourists will convey a positive message to their citizens back home that the situation in Iraq is good.”

Their itinerary included the Castle of Arbil — a relic of the medieval Ottoman empire in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region — as well as the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, in Mosul, a dangerous city still crawling with Sunni Arab insurgents.

They visited the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites of Shi’ite Islam, whose devastation in a bomb attack in 2006 unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

In the south, the tourists saw the holy Shi’ite shrines of Kerbala and Najaf, which are already popular with religious pilgrims from Iran, and the southern oil-hub Basra.

They will finish with a visit to the Iraqi National Museum. The building was re-opened last month for the first time since looters pillaged it after the U.S.-led invasion.

Iraq, part of a region known as the cradle of civilization, has countless archaeological and religious sites but decades of war have shut the doors to foreign tourist groups.