VOA标准英语2012--Owners Can't Overstay Welcome at Trendy Condo Hotels

Owners Can't Overstay Welcome at Trendy Condo Hotels

 

You know what a hotel is, of course. And perhaps, a condominium - a residential¹ building divided into separate units that are owned by different people.

What you may not know is that in some U.S. cities, the two have come together into something called a "condo hotel."

Several can now be found in beach and mountain resort towns and a few modest-sized cities.

However, none is more famous than the legendary², 105-year-old Plaza³ Hotel in New York, on glitzy Fifth Avenue across from Central Park.

The Plaza closed for renovation⁴ in 2005. When it reopened two years later, more than half of it had been transformed into one of these trendy condo hotels. The posh and historic Hotel Del Coronado, on the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California, did much the same thing.

Here's how it works: You buy - not rent - what amounts to an apartment or suite⁵. If it's at The Plaza, it will cost you between $1.5 million and $9 million. 

But hey, New York's expensive, right?

The Plaza Hotel in New York sells trendy condo units, but owners can stay there no more than 120 days a year. 

The rest of the time, the hotel's reservation folks can book guests into your place, just as they would in the regular hotel’s rooms. They lock anything of yours that’s priceless or personal in a closet when others are staying there.

The good news for you is that whatever Mr. Conklin from Cleveland and Ms. Dow from Denver pay to stay in your suite - and presumably it would be a top rate for such nice accommodations - goes to you, minus housekeeping charges and a management fee. 

So if you're lucky - and rich -you can now live in really special quarters up to one-third of the year, while others pay off your mortgage the rest of the year.

You cannot furnish it with your grandfather’s rocking chair, iridescent⁶ paintings of elephants, or your beer-can collection, though - or anything else that might turn off paying guests.

The hotel picks the furnishings and the bath towels. 

So far, according to the USA Today newspaper, a great many of the nation’s condo-hotel units have been purchased not by rich individuals but by richer corporations, including foreign ones, that want a nice place for their executives to stay when they’re in town or working late at the office.

1 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

2 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

3 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

4 renovation   

n.革新，整修

参考例句：

• The cinema will reopen next week after the renovation.电影院修缮后，将于下星期开业。
• The building has undergone major renovation.这座大楼已进行大整修。

5 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

6 iridescent   

adj.彩虹色的，闪色的

参考例句：

• The iridescent bubbles were beautiful.这些闪着彩虹般颜色的大气泡很美。
• Male peacocks display their iridescent feathers for prospective female mates.雄性孔雀为了吸引雌性伴侣而展现了他们彩虹色的羽毛。