Two new Marriott hotels in Atlanta, Georgia are set to become the city’s greenest after one is awarded the status of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The SpringHill Suites Atlanta Airport Gateway has been granted LEED status by the US Green Building Council. A second Marriott hotel, the Atlanta Marriott Gateway, is still to open its doors, but when it does so in August, it will apply for silver LEED status.
Area vice president for Marriott International, Erika Alexander, said that being one of the first hotels in Atlanta to achieve the highest LEED awards was extremely gratifying. By [...]

An Australian man who fleeced more than $50,000 from Thrifty Car Rental has been sentenced to two years in jail. Dean John Pitt used his position to steal from his employer to feed a drug habit which his lawyers claim was brought about by imprisonment for a past conviction.
The theft of $52,900 AUD, around £30,000, was made from the Thrifty office at Hobart Airport between November 2008 and September 2009, when Pitt worked as a duty manager for the popular car hire company.
The Hobart Supreme Court heard that Risdon Vale native Pitt, 30, had a criminal record for similar offences [...]

England’s early exit from the World cup has resulted in a surge of last minute holiday bookings. According to Lastminute.com, within a few hours of England’s elimination by Germany, bookings had risen by 25 per cent on the day before. Andy Washington, Lastminute’s head of travel, said that people seem to be booking a summer holiday as a way of getting over the soccer blues.
The fact that the pound is at the highest level against the euro at the moment compared to any time in the last 19 months is also a cause for celebration for the British holidaymaker.
Since this [...]

Car rental leader Hertz has moved to reassure staff and investors at Dollar Thrifty over job levels.
Hertz has announced that the potential takeover bid for Dollar Thrifty would not affect staffing for a minimum of three months; with the company’s Tulsa-based workforce guaranteed stability for that period should the proposed $1.3 billion acquisition go ahead.
Hertz CEO Mark Frissora made the announcement, and added that Hertz will continue the incumbent base wage, benefit, bonus and severance pay schemes for a minimum of 15 months after the conclusion of the transaction.
Frissora’s assurances came via a letter to letter to Dollar Thrifty CEO [...]

The Toyota Motor Corporation has lost a key courtroom battle in its case regarding out of control vehicles.
Product-liability lawyers won the right to have the manufacturer’s trade secrets revealed in litigation in the hearing over complaints relating to the over-speeding cars, with the presiding judge rejecting Toyota’s request for a ban on confidential information in pre-trial proceedings, thereby allowing disclosure to outside experts and consultants for the plaintiff. Toyota had requested that rival car makers be excluded from the information for confidentiality.
Toyota sought the exclusion to ensure that no proprietary information which could compromise the manufacturer’s competitive position by sealing [...]

ArgusCarHire.com, the leading site for European car rental, has warned of summer shortages.
The advisory warning to customers comes as reports of low availability continue to surface in the most popular European holiday destinations over the busy summer peak season.
Spanish resorts in particular are feeling the pinch, with Argus claiming that there are likely to be severe shortages in Mallorca, Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza, Menorca and Murcia – all traditional hot spots for UK holidaymakers. The low availability stems from the widespread fleet reductions forced upon car rental companies in the midst of the global travel downturn of 2009. Last year saw [...]

Thousands of holidays later this summer are under threat as airline union Unite announces a new strike ballot for British Airways cabin crew. The vote on whether to commence a new round of walkouts will take place on June 29 with the result due on July 27. If the vote is in favour of a walkout then the first strike could take place just seven days later.
If this happens than the disruption caused will be particularly bad news for those who go on holiday with their families during the school holidays. BA has condemned that announcement and described the move [...]

A US court has ruled that car-sharing companies should be afforded the same legal protection as rental organisations.
In what is widely believed to be the first such ruling, a judge in Queens, New York, has deemed that the burgeoning car-sharing outfit Zipcar would be able to avail itself of the same protections under the 2005 federal Graves Amendment, which protects rental car agencies against being liable for accidents that involve their vehicles.
Supreme Court Justice Roger N. Rosengarten said that while the members-only car sharing group is marketed as an alternative to using rental cars, it would nonetheless be able to claim [...]

The American Automotive Policy Council has declared its support for the abolition of discriminatory taxes on rental vehicles.
Acting on behalf of leading car manufacturers General Motors, Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group, the AAPC said it was in favour of doing away with the practice of different states imposing various taxes on users who either choose or are required to hire a car or truck. To date, around $7.5 billion has been accrued from the US consumer through these taxes.
Stephen Collins, AAPC President,  said that many of the taxes were imposed by the states were done so under the [...]

A leaked report, purportedly from the London Assembly Conservatives to Mayor of London Boris Johnson, proposes that all London Underground trains should be driverless. The Conservative report claims that removing drivers would not only save Transport for London an estimated £141 million per year in wages, but would also prevent future strike action.
The memo to Mr Johnson states that technology is already being used on the Central and Victoria lines which means that drivers are little more than door openers. It adds that upgrade work currently taking place will mean that this will also soon be the case on the [...]