Best Hotel Scandals in 2008

Its part of my job to keep track of what's going on in the hospitality industry. I spend hours every day reading about trends like sustainability, new hotel and restaurant openings, vacation packages and deals, airfares, industry buzz, convention bookings, awards, etc. And scandals. Very important, these scandals. Nothing sells like sex, sleaze and violence. Especially when it involves celebrities.

2008 was a bit different, in terms of scandals. For a change, Hollywood prima donnas took a backseat to celebrities and nutjobs from other arenas. And also because some of the incidents involved the hotels themselves.

Room 871 at the Mayflower Hotel has become a part of the tourist attractions in Washington DC, thanks to former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer. Former Sen. John Edwards had his own sleazy affair at the Beverly Hilton. Room 996 at the Fairmont Newport Beach is now famous as the place where a drug dealer stashed his girl friend's dead body for over a year in a freezer. Then there's the orgy by hotel employees at the Minneapolis Hilton. Details of these, and other incidents, like British crooner Amy Winehouse dancing in a hotel balcony half-dressed (that's an understatement, actually...) in full public view, and being recorded on video, below the fold.

The best hotel scandal of 2008 award definitely goes to Eliot Spitzer. As NY Governor, Spitzer was caught by ederal investiagtors enjoying the services of a 22 year old $1000 per hour NYC call girl named Kristen aka Ashley Alexandra Dupre (her myspace profile has more pictures and videos).

He had her flown into Washington DC where he was staying at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, and according to court docs, spent at least 2 hours with her there. The Feds began the investigation after Spitzer's bank notified them of the money transfers to the prostitution ring which sent these gorgeous girls to meet high profile clients in discreet New York hotels.

Spitzer announced his resignation two days after the New York Times broke the story on the 10th of March.

The other major political sex hotel scandal of the year involved former Senator John Edwards, who had been steadily denying an affair (and a love child) with a woman named Rielle Hunter, who had been paid a heavy sum by his Presidential campaign to produce some videos. He was finally caught visiting her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton by the National Enquirer.

Moving from political sleaze to corporate malfeasance, we have high-flying executives of AIG, which had just accepted an $85 billion bailout funded by the tax-payer, celebrating and enjoying the good life and luxury at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, CA, in October, where they spent $440,000 on lodging, dining, drinking and spa treatments.

And inspite of the massive media uproar and the hopping mad Congressmen, the AIG executives then followed it up with another luxury retreat, this time at in Phoenix, where they blew another $223,000. The Phoenix retreat they tried to hide as far as possible from the public, but an enterprising undercover TV crew dug it up, and captured the AIG bosses enjoying poolside meetings and lunches and that kind of thing - All this from a bankrupt company which toook money from the Federal Govt. in order to stay afloat.

But the thing which sent new NY Governor Paterson (who had been very instrumental in making sure that AIG did not go belly-up) into a fit of rage was the news that the AIG bosses then blew another £50000 on a hunting trip in the UK. Congress and Paterson then threatened to bring criminal charges and make AIG executives pay out-of-pocket for all the junkets if it did not stop at once. Hasn't been a single AIG 'retreat' in the news after that.

And now for the really hot stuff. In Dec 2007, there was a sexual orgy at the Minneaoplis Hilton, involving many employees of the hotel. Now you might say taht this should not be counted as a scandal in 2008, but it didn't blow up in the media until December 2008, when an ex-employee of the hotel filed a lawsuit claiming that she had been fired from her job because she had accidently walked in on the orgy and then complained about it. The lawsuit states that the emplyees were 'doing it' on the tables.

To follow it up, another ex-employee, who had actually been involved in the orgy, also filed a lawsuit claiming sexual harrasment and wrongful termination. There's pictures of the orgy available, and the lawsuits are still in progress.

And in a nod to the usual celeb scandals, we have Amy Winehouse, who in December went on a Carribean 'family' vacation to St. Lucia. Apparently she was so high, that she got out on the hotel balcony and started dancing topless. Its all on video. On youtube....

I'm not providing links, photos or videos to either the Minneapolis Hilton orgy or the Amy Winehouse dance, considering that I'd rather keep this hub family friendly.