W Hotel in Austin forced to close because of falling glass
By bostonphil
@bostonphil (4459)
United States
June 28, 2011 11:41pm CST
If you are coming to Austin, Texas very soon, do not expect to stay at The W Hotel. The hotel has been forced to close because glass is falling out from the panes. This has happened three or four times now. The first time, a couple of persons were slightly injured when glass fell on them. Yesterday, some automobiles got damaged from more falling glass. And today, we had falling glass once or twice.
The streets around the hotel have been roped off. And the hotel has decided to close indefinitely. They have to figure out what is going wrong: why is this happening.
This luxurious hotel opened just a few months ago with major fanfare. There was an all day street dance to celebrate its opening. And there was all kinds of hoopla and self-congratulations around its opening.
Other strange things are happening around this hotel. A month or two ago, a guest committed suicide by jumping from one of the windows of this hotel. And yesterday, a server associated with this hotel who disappeared a month ago was found dead in some kind of vent system at a fancy restaurant across the street.
The W Hotel in Atlanta has had the same problems with falling glass. A pedestrian got killed when falling glass fell on her and another was severely injured.
1 response
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
1 Jul 11
I am very sorry that such strange things are happening at the W Hotel. Falling panes of glass are very dangerous. I feel sorry for the pedestrian that got injured badly. It is awful that one pedestrian actually got killed just walking past it. The car owners must be angry that they have got damage on their cars. I would not expect such things would happen at a luxury hotel. No wonder the hotel has been forced to close. One or two people might think it is a haunted building.
In my local paper there is a story about a fire breaking out at a disused hotel on the sea front. The owner of that hotel hasn't been in contact with the authorities. In the 1930s it was the best hotel in the coastal town I live in. How times change is hard to grasp in such strange situations. The owner of the W Hotel will be worried about a closed hotel because it means no income.
@bostonphil (4459)
• United States
1 Jul 11
Thanks for responding. I began this discussion Tuesday evening when the news was breaking. It is big news. You have been my only response thus far. I was expecting more.
The W is temporarily closed while workers remove all 1,000 panes of glass. It has turned out that it was "made in China". We will see what the results are. The W is probably going to have to be closed until early next week. I think that they are temporarily replacing the windows with non-glass poster board or something like that. I do not believe that they are putting in new glass for now. So this luxurious hotel is going to look really shabby. But, all the problem glass is glass used on patios. None of the windows glass is having problems.
They are losing a lot of money. This is also our July 4th weekend and this is a big weekend in the states. So it is sort of a double whammy.
They have had to rope off some areas. They have had to reduce lanes of traffic. The buses have had to be re-routed. Police officers are being used to direct traffic and provide security. It is a traffic nightmare and costing a lot of money.
A lawsuit had been filed by the persons who got injured the first time that glass fell two or three weeks back. I would expect that more lawsuits are coming.
I think that there is a curse on The W chain. Yesterday another person fell or jumped from a W Hotel in another city.
