Never mind, it's working again (the chart came up when I chose UA). I'm sure it didn't work a minute ago!

=aw

This is because the Regent Miami Beach is now an independent property and not associated with Carlson. The hotel is now the Vincci South Beach.

That was quick, didn't it just open!? (By "just" I mean a year ago).

Thanks for the info.

=aw

Yes, you are right, it just very recently. Word on the street was that Carlson was doing a pretty bad job managing it and the ownership was not happy with the financial results or service indicators.

...another domestic Carlson property one goes bye bye. Good thing they have the European divison!

Not just South Beach, I notice on the Regent site that the only two properties in North America are Boston and Bal Harbour FL, neither actually open yet. Didn't they have one in Beverly Hills and another in the US? Not any more!

=aw

No trophy hotels
 

One of my big duffs with the GP program is that there are just not enough really nice US hotels that I am dying to accumulate points to stay at. Where is their representation on Hawaii? Las Vegas?

This is really a problem of losing Radisson properties, I've personally stayed at Radisson Deauville Miami Beach, Radisson Boca Bridge, Radisson Boca Suites, and all have left the chain. Of course the Deauville wasn't great and looks like it hasn't been updated since I was there in 2002, but the two Boca properties were nice. It was frustrating when I went back to FL in 2005 and discovered all the convenient properties from the previous trip were gone (relatives in FLL area so it was nice to get away to Boca or Miami Beach for a few days at a time).

There's a thread here somewhere that tracks the property closures. The idea was apparently to weed out the properties that weren't keeping up, and move the brand up-scale, which I was looking forward to, but the Regent South Beach suggests it's not a great success. :(

=aw

Yes, you are right. The Regent in Beverly Hills left the brand a couple of years ago, if I recall correctly. It was not actually managed by Carlson...it was a Four Seasons property. It appears that Four Seasons has rebranded it to a standard Four Seasons.

The only other Regent's in the US are Boston and Bal Harbour. Boston is supposed to open this spring. Bal Harbour still says opening Winter of 2007...guess they missed that deadline and failed to update the website.

On other note, I just read that Carlson has sold the Regent cruise division to Apollo: http://www.travelindustrywire.com/article30436.html Now, that was a well run part of the company!