Flash Mobbers Use Lady Gaga to Demand Workers Rights in SF

San Francisco: If you've been around select Union Square hotels as of late, you can't help but see and hear the loud protests of people as they swarm the sidewalks and entrances to hotels demanding a fair contract and affordable health care for employees. One group of people recently stepped up their visibility by infiltrating the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco and performing an adaptation to Lady Gaga's song, "Bad Romance." Great stuff! The Westin St. Francis is among a short list of other hotels the website Hotel Workers Rising recommends a boycott of.

Starwood 4-day California Sale Ends Friday

Check out Starwood Hotel's California sale - going on now, for just three more days. Book by Friday, April 23rd and stay before June 16th to enjoy some fabulous rates at Starwood properties throughout the Golden State. For example: Westin Bonaventure in L.A is available for just $99/night; W San Diego for $149; and the Westin St. Francis San Francisco for $149/night. Click here to check other available rates and to book.

Related: Starwood has a promotion starting May 1st where every 3 hotel stays earns you 1 free weekend night at nearly any Starwood property in the world.

Stay Twice at Westin Hotels, Earn $100 Amazon Gift Card

From the *wood blog comes word of a great new Westin Hotels promotion. Simply register two separate stays between February 22 and May 13th and earn a $100 Amazon gift card. Planning on several visits? You can earn up to 3 gift cards with this offer! You must register for the promo, and only arrivals between Sunday and Thursday count. Click here for more details.

New Starwood Promo: Earn Up To 1,000 Points Per Stay

Earn up to 1,000 bonus points now through November 30th in Starwood Hotels' Get Closer to Paradise promotion. Simply stay at a participating hotel and earn either 500 or 1000 Starpoints per stay. Click here to register.

Starwood: Free Nights and Bonus Miles

Starwood Hotels, which back in April launched a free weekend nights promo, is now sweetening the deal by adding yet another incentive for hotel stays. In addition to the 1 free night after 2 stays promo, guests will also earn 1,000 Northwest or Delta miles at participating properties through July 31, 2009. Click here for full details and to register.

Register Today for Starwood's Free Weekend Nights Promo

Hats off to Tommy at *wood for letting us know about this latest Starwood Hotels latest stay promotion. 

Here's how it works: You earn a complimentary weekend night after you stay just two times at any of the Starwood properties worldwide between May 1 and July 31, 2009. Added bonuses: There is no limit to the number of free nights you can earn with this promotion, and you can redeem the free room at many of the luxury properties around the world. The complimentary night is redeemable through September 30, 2009. Click here to register for this exciting SPG promotion. 

Enter to Win a Hawai'i Vacation from Outside Magazine

Register here for a chance to win a five-night vacation in Hawai'i, including round-trip airfare for two to Honolulu, five-night accommodations at the Moana Surfrider (fantastic property!) and surfing lessons from Aloha Beach Services. Entries must be received by April 13, 2009. 

Westin Hotels Pilots Wii Gaming System

Westin Hotels and Nintendo announced they would launch a pilot program to install the popular Wii game system to some of its hotel fitness centers. The specially designed for hotels game console will be pre-loaded with several games, including Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and work as part of Westin's existing WestinWORKOUT program.

On Thursday the systems were installed at Westin hotels in Bellevue, Washington and in New York City's Time Square. The system will be added to select Westin properties during May in Houston-Galleria, Kansas City, Mo., Hilton Head Island, S.C., St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto, Hollywood, Calif. and Savannah, Ga.

Sheraton Hotels going smoke-free by year-end

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and Four Points by Sheraton will ban smoking at more than 300 properties throughout the U.S and Canada.

This policy matches that of Westin Hotels and Resorts which became smoke-free in 2006. Both Westin and Sheraton are owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Some 8,000 rooms at the hotels will be cleaned, including treatments for air conditioning, walls, rugs, upholstery and hard surfaces.Smoking will also be banned in public areas in the hotels, but there will be a designated outdoor area at each property for guests who smoke.

Both hotel brands expect to be completely free in the U.S and Canada by December 31st.

Heavenly Bed Sweepstakes

If you've ever slept on a Westin Heavenly Bed, you'll know this Starwood sweepstakes promotion is worth clicking on. Actually, the W Signature Bed is also part of the promotion, and is right up there with the Westin Heavenly in terms of comfort.

Imagine sinking into the Westin "Cloud" as I like to call it every night in the comfort and familiarity of your own bedroom. The lucky contestant will win a bedroom makeover with prizes including:

1) Your choice of a

- W Signature Bed

- Westin Heavenly Bed

- Sheraton Sweet Sleeper

- Four Points Comfort Bed

2) $1,800 Best Buy gift card

3) $2,000 Crate & Barrel gift card

Top 100 Hotels in the World

Travel + Leisure magazine publishes an annual best hotels list as determined by its readers. For this poll, the magazine turns to its discriminating readers to determine the very best in travel, from hotels that go the extra mile to operators who make the journey possible. Many of the major brands have recognition in this list, but it seems like the usual suspects including the Mandarin, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and Four Seasons sweep the top spots.

After ringing in 2008 at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles, I took a moment to reflect upon all the different hotels I had stayed at in 2007. I quickly realized that I had stepped foot in very few of the list's elite hotels catering to the elite wallet. But rather than feel discouraged, I simply made a new year's resolution to turn this 'best of' list into more of a 'to do' list.

So what are the top hotels in the world? The image above is a sample list of the top 20 hotels in the world. If you're looking for the complete list of the 12th annual poll, as well as the methodology used in the rankings, click right over here. You'll also find quite a few rankings in other relevant dimensions of travel.

Source: Travel + Leisure magazine