Anthony Lee, a penniless truck driver from Yorkshire, almost got away with selling the landmark Ritz hotel in London for £250 million.

The Ritz London

The 5-star hotel is actually worth a lot more and is owned by the Barclay twins, who have never heard of Anthony Lee. The conman even gave his con a name. Here’s how ’Project Notting Hill’ works:-

Lee first contacted Karen Maguire of Property-Source.com, and claimed to be a close friend to the Barclay twins. He said that the Barclays were selling him the Ritz Hotel in London’s Piccadilly district for £200m, and he in turn wanted to sell it for £250m. 

Ms Maguire then lined up buyers for the property. The Ritz was to be bought from the Barclays by Lee for £200m, and sold to Terence Collins, a London-based property developer, for £250m. Collins then found Marcel Boekhoorn, a property magnate, who agreed to buy the Ritz from Collins.

Just to clarify – The Ritz wasn’t up for sale, and the Barclay twins had no idea their hotel was changing hands among various parties in London. Anyway, with the whole chain in place, Lee asked for a £1m non-refundable deposit, which was paid into his bank account.

After he got the £1m, Lee backed out of the deal, claiming to have found a buyer with a better offer. The matter ended up in court, and the whole con spilled out into the open. The judge gave Anthony Lee 5 years for the “elaborate and outrageous scam.”

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As part of the ‘Only in London’ campaign, Visit London wants you to stay in the world’s smallest pop-up hotel. What, you might ask, is a pop-up hotel?

Visit London Pop up Hotel

It’s a 203 sq ft luxury boutique hotel converted from an Airstream, which will be camping out at different tourist attractions around London during March.

The Airstream was converted into a full-fledged hotel with the assistance of Radisson Edwardian Hotels, and is based on the design of the Bloomsbury Street Hotel.

Comes complete with a concierge from Radisson Edwardian, check-in desk and room service.

Facilities include a kitchenette w/dining room, mini fridge, bar stools, flat screen TV, sound system, tea and coffee making facilities.

 Bath comes with a shower, toiletries, towels, and everything that one would expect to find in top-notch London hotels. You also get a morning breakfast and your choice of a daily newspaper.

Oh yes, this is for real – not just a gimmick. People will actually spend the night for free (one night only) in the luxury of the world’s smallest pop-up hotel, with one of London’s famed attractions as the backdrop.

Here’s the schedule:-

15 March: ZSL London Zoo, including free entry into the Zoo
16 March: Alexandra Palace, including a free ice skating pass
17 March: The South Bank, including free fast track tickets to The London Eye
18 March: Covent Garden 
19th March: Old Royal Navy College, Greenwich, including a tour of the site

To win a chance to spend a night in the hotel, visit www.visitlondon.com/popup and register your details. Last date to apply is 7th March, and the hotel will be open from March 15-19, 2010. Applicants should be in London, or at least agree to be in London during the period in question.

Photo courtesy Visit London

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The Gateway to Wales Hotel renamed and rebranded itself as the Days Hotel, Chester North. Which would be fine, except for the fact that it isn’t in the same country as Chester, England. It’s actually located a few miles off in Sealand, Flintshire, in Wales.

Sealand Chester map

‘Gateway to Wales’ was being construed as an invitation to visit Wales.

Since both Sealand and Chester are in Cheshire, UK, the hotel apparently thought it would be brilliant to get themselves a brand name (Days Hotel) and ditch Wales altogether, by latching on to Chester.

It wouldn’t be such a controversy if they weren’t explicitly claiming to be in the same country.

On the website of the Days Hotel, Chester North, it says – “The area boasts some of the country’s top attractions such as Chester Zoo, Blue Planet Aquarium, Ness Gardens, great places to shop like Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet Village.”

It’s quite clear they’re claiming to be in England, and now they have the worst of both worlds. Authorities in Chester are hopping mad that a hotel in another country is using their name to attract guests. Local councillors in Chester have contacted Flintshire and there is an investigation in progress.

And in Sealand and Flintshire, the locals are outraged that a hotel in their midst wants to have nothing to do with them or with Wales, and would rather be known as an English hotel.

To be fair, they weren’t the first or only hotel to try this gimmick. There’s another hotel in Flintshire – a Holiday Inn, which some time back rebranded itself as the Holiday Inn Chester West. And it’s even further off from Chester than the Days Hotel.

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How dangerous can a toothpick be? Very dangerous, at least for the UK based Macdonald Hotels, since their staff refused to let a customer have a toothpick after a meal, citing safety reasons.

Toothpick - A Dangerous Weapon

Mr. John Freeman, a retired teacher, had just enjoyed a nice three-course meal at the Macdonald Portal Golf and Spa Hotel in in Tarporley, Cheshire, eaten with the aid of 14 sharp and glistening knives and forks available on his table.

But when he asked for a toothpick to get rid of a piece of rib-eye steak stuck in his teeth, the waiter tells him he wasn’t allowed to give out toothpicks for health and safety reasons.

When Mr. Freeman asked to see the manager, he was assured by the manager that the hotel had recieved a directive from their head office not to provide toothpicks “because they are potentially dangerous.”

A spokesman for the luxury hotel chain said there was no such ban, and said that it was probably simply because the hotel was out of toothpicks.

Maybe the hotel simply out of toothpicks and so the waiter and manager made up the whopper about the “directive from hq.” Or was there indeed a directive, and the hotel’s waiter and manager are now being made to take the fall for it?

The Macdonald Portal Hotel, Golf and Spa in Cheshire offers 85 luxurious guest rooms, 3 golf courses and the largest indoor golf academy in Europe. Their restaurant aka the scene of the crime is the award-winning Rosette restaurant and bar.

Photo by Kamil Porembiński

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