I saw a disturbing news story from Detroit that I hope doesn’t filter down to other cities in which Hurricane Katrina evacuees are living in hotels. The Detroit News reported on Monday that FEMA is still paying at least one hotel in the Detroit area for evacuees who apparently are no longer housed there.

According to the paper’s investigators, nine rooms at the independent property are registered to evacuees who have either left the hotel or could not be located by either the reporter or the hotel staff. FEMA pays a minimum of $325 a week for each of the rooms. Blame for the costly snafu (or fraud) seems to rest with both the hotel and FEMA: Hotel management claims it’s merely a mix-up, while FEMA admits that the hotel reimbursement program is “nearly impossible to police.” That’s a frightening thought given that FEMA is still paying 1,700 hotels around the country to house 53,000 people—even, it seems, if there still no longer on premise.

I hope this is just an isolated incident and that other similar examples of mismanagement or fraud don’t come to light. The hotel industry has acted honorably and at times, heroically in the aftermath of this disaster. It would be a shame if the public’s last post-Katrina perception of the industry were an ugly one.

It’s a shame that the hotel industry often gets sucked into the world of partisan politics. This time the issue is immigration reform and the ever-present specter of national security. Yesterday, President Bush reaffirmed his stance on immigration reform, including a provision that would allow some of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. to apply for temporary (up to six years) guest worker status. If adopted, the plan could be a boon to the hospitality industry and the many lodging properties—especially resorts—that are in constant need of workers to take the thousands of line-level hotel jobs that are vacant at any given time.

The bad news is that even though Bush coupled the proposal with a call for stronger measures to protect our borders from terrorists and illegal immigrants, the conservative wing of the Republican party (the people to whom the President is beholden for his job) doesn’t like the idea of allowing illegals to remain in the country under any circumstance, even if they’re solving a critical problem for a major industry like lodging.

My guess is that given the President’s other political problems, he may need to sacrifice the guest-worker proposal in order to get action on the rest of the package. Take note of the Congressmen and governors who oppose guest workers and punish (or reward, if you’re so inclined) them at the ballot box in the next election. Of course, how you react probably will depend on how difficult it is to find enough quality employees to staff your hotel or hotels. If you’re not sure, call your HR and ask him or her if it’s a problem or not.

Speaking of news from the hotel industry (see editor Ed Watkins’ entry “Don’t go on the balcony”), I get my daily dose of happenings and juicy tidbits from HotelChatter.com. Here you’ll find up-to-the-moment reporting of the latest deals, gossip and frank observations on everything lodging.

This daily web magazine “is dedicated to covering everything related to hotels and lodging around the world.” Readers are invited to post insights on their travel experiences, including photos, and you’ll see it all—the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s a hodgepodge of industry wheelings and dealings, tips for booking online, celebrity sightings and solid information.

The attitude is fresh and cheeky (and sometimes snarky), but always fun. Be sure to bookmark it.

Pick up the December issue of Conde Nast Traveler for a great story on timesharing that puts the industry in good light for a change. The 11-page section is a consumers’ guide to understanding and buying timeshares, fractionals and destination clubs. The well-written and easy-to-decipher section answers a myriad of common questions many consumers have about alternative lodging products—costs, benefits, resale issues, tax considerations—as well as a frank, but not sensational discussion of the industry’s past image problems.

The only quarrel I have with the story is that it gives equal weight to destination club products as it does to timeshare and fractionals. Many in the traditional timeshare industry worry that the lightly regulated destination club business may stumble, giving vacation ownership a black eye by association.

News about the hotel industry comes from a wide variety of sources, even the notorious Page Six gossip column in the New York Post. Today’s edition of the rag reports on a potential structural problem at The Setai, the condo hotel of the moment on Miami’s South Beach.

According to the Post, owners of condo units at the property have been told not to venture onto their balconies for fear they may collapse. Not only are owners and guests deprived of the great views, but they also can’t use the Jacuzzis on some of the units’ balconies.

Management blames Hurricane Wilma for the problem and says inspectors will check the balconies next week with necessary repairs to follow. You can bet that owners, who paid between $1.25 million and $25 million for their units, will keep the heat on management until the situation is fixed.

In an odd way, The Plaza Hotel in New York City has done more for Israeli-Arab relations than has 25 years of high-level diplomacy. Follow this story, which proves that commerce can trump politics:

• In August 2004, Israeli investment firm ELAD Properties bought The Plaza for $675 million from co-owners Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. After a long fight with New York’s hotel unions (that’s another story), ELAD launched a $350-million renovation of the property and conversion of some hotel rooms into condo hotel units.

• Today, ELAD announced that it selected Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels to manage The Plaza when it reopens in 2007. A part owner (about five percent) of Fairmont is none other than Prince Alwaleed.

It just shows that sometimes green is thicker than red.

PricewaterhouseCoopers made a smart move yesterday, bumping Scott Berman up to leader of the consulting firm’s U.S. hospitality and leisure group. Master hospitality soothsayer Bjorn Hanson, who previously led the group’s hotel practice, takes on a lofty new role: the development of research and what the company calls thought leadership.

Berman’s appointment is particularly wise, given his most recent experience leading the firm’s resort, timeshare, sports, convention and leisure business segments—all of which are huge growth areas for the hospitality business. Based in Miami, Berman also specialized in the Caribbean and Latin American markets, two more areas of potential for the firm and the industry.

Of course, Hanson will remain the heart and soul of the PwC hotel machine. His clear-reasoned and research-heavy analysis of the lodging industry—as well as his finely honed sartorial style—has helped the industry gain the respect and credibility it now enjoys on Wall Street and throughout the real estate and finance worlds.—Ed Watkins, Editor

It’s bad enough that the lodging business must depend on an antiquated, broken-down airline system as a major feeder of business. As the U.S. airline industry totters toward mass bankruptcy, the fiscally healthy hotel business has no choice but to sit on the sidelines and hope it all works out.

Now to pour salt in the wounds, Northwest Airlines, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, has left a number of hotels in the Twin Cities area holding the bag for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid hotel bills for which the sick airline will probably never be able to make good. According to reports in a local business journal, several properties were stiffed for tabs totaling $50,000 to $100,000. For other properties, the bills were less but still substantial.

From a personal point of view, several GMs complained that the write-offs may be enough to keep some properties from making their budget numbers for the year, placing the bonuses for GMs and other management personnel in jeopardy.—Ed Watkins, Editor

The primary purpose of hotel conferences is to explain and promote plans for the coming year, and Best Western, like other brands, does that well. But it did a different kind of more in late October in Phoenix, when the 60-year-old membership organization mounted “Taking Care of Business,” three days of executive presentations.

What was unusual about the conference was its candor. Not only did Best Western President and CEO David Kong devote much of his opening speech to Best Western’s efforts to repair the damage wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he showed a five-minute video about his visit to the area that left many in tears.

Edited down from five hours of footage, the video was devastating. It showed the chaos those hurricanes wrought. It also showed Kong in a minivan driven by Dawn Boteler, a Louisiana man and Best Western owner who has worked tirelessly to get his property and other Gulf Coast Best Westerns back on track. Kong was clearly moved by the presentation—not to mention the scene.

Later on, during a discussion of quality assurance measures, Best Western executives unveiled another slide show. This time, the subject was underperforming properties, and the pictures were revealing—and not pretty. I can’t recall another conference in which the phrase “warts and all” was so literal.

It’s heartening to see a big corporation like Best Western wear its emotions on its sleeve. Such exposure takes courage.—Carlo Wolff, Features Editor

I found it odd that ex-Starwood Hotels Chairman Barry Sternlicht chose the Wall Street Journal to voice his objections to this week’s blockbuster sale by Starwood of 38 hotels to Host Marriott. Sternlicht, who’s reportedly Starwood’s largest individual shareholder, whined to the Journal that the company could have gotten more than the $4.1 billion it received from Host for the portfolio of primo properties. He also took a cheap shot at Starwood CEO Steve Heyer (who Barry hand-picked for the job before he left the company), calling him “an absentee CEO who doesn’t know the real estate markets.” Sounds like bad blood to me.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I assume Barry would have been privy to the sale before it was made and could have raised his objections at that time. I’ve long had this notion that just three or four guys (Sternlicht included) do all of the real estate buying and selling in the hotel industry. My guess is they get together for lunch a couple of times a month at a fancy club in New York to make their Monopoly moves.

Barry must have missed the last luncheon, but I bet he’s at every one in the future.—Ed Watkins, Editor