Koi Group has just inked a deal with the Trump SoHo New York to operate the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant, Hotel Check-In has learned.

The restaurant is expected to open this summer, Ashley Berg, Koi’s publicist, tells me. Construction has not yet begun.

Koi also operates the popular Koi Bryant Park restaurant at the Bryant Park Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

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Examples of Koi’s contemporary Japanese signature dishes: “Crispy Rice topped with Spice Tuna” and “Miso-Bronzed Black Cod.”

Koi Group also has a free standing restaurant in West Hollywood, Calif., one inside the Planet Hollywood Resort Casino in Las Vegas, and another in Bangkok.

Troubled restaurant space

At the luxury Trump SoHo hotel, the restaurant company is taking over a space that has had trouble finding an identity.

In April 2010, it opened when the hotel opened as Quattro, and then just two months ago, it changed to “The Restaurant.”

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This week’s roundup of the Top 10 most-popular stories on Hotel Check-In includes stories about Wall Street’s love for luxury hotels.

But the No. 1 story, not surprisingly, involves Whitney Houston’s final hotel stay at the Beverly Hilton. The full list for the week ending Feb. 18:

10. Rooftop hotel bars attract too few when temps dip

9. Boss allegedly assaulted hotel housekeeper

8. Marriott to open first hotel in Buffalo

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7. Wall Street not curbing luxury hotel spending

6. Makeover Monday: Delano, Loews and Wynfrey hotels

5. Gaylord CEO: ‘We’ve locked in higher prices’

4. New trend: Not your father’s wine bar

3. Hotel sex recording creates ‘honeymoon from hell’

2. Hilton takes over USA’s No. 1 hotel in Chicago

1. Whitney Houston’s hotel room will stay empty for a while

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In Los Angeles last month during the Americas Investment Lodging Conference, USA TODAY assembled our first-ever hotel CEO roundtable with the CEOs of Marriott, InterContinental Hotels Group, Choice, Wyndham Hotels and Carlson.

Because we couldn’t possibly squeeze everything from the hour-long conversation into print – despite the full-page of coverage in USA TODAY’s Money section last week, I’m going to run some of what was lost in the editing process here on USA TODAY’s Hotel Check-In hotels blog.

Today: Carlson CEO Hubert Joly talks about changes with the Radisson chain, which is in the midst of giving the brand a modern image. Carlson operates more than 1,300 hotels worldwide.

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USA TODAY: It’s been two years since Carlson launched its plan to revamp the Radisson chain. Many agree it needed to updated, with some hotels better than others. How is that going?

JOLY: At this point, we have 25% of Radisson hotels that had been renovated at the end of 2011.

We’ll be at 50% at the end of 2012, and 75% at the end of 2013. So, the Radisson brand in the U.S. is really changing, and we’re very proud of that.

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USA TODAY: The company just opened its first location of Radisson’s edgy sister brand – Radisson Blu – in the USA in Chicago. It is the 219th Blu, however, most are in Europe, most Americans have heard of it and its style is vastly different from how people perceive the Radisson brand today. How do you think it will do with Chicago visitors?

JOLY: The Radisson Blu in Chicago is from a design standpoint and architectural standpoint getting positive feedback from people who have seen it. This product is really, very different.

The customer response is very strong, so certainly this is signaling a trend that started in Europe – and is now in Asia as well – for very vibrant design-led brands. It will grow in the US. We’ll have Radisson Blu at Mall of America open in 12 months.

Readers: Comments? Have you stayed in a spruced-up Radisson yet? If so, tell us what you think.

Despite falling profits, slashed bonuses and layoffs, Wall Street banks don’t appear to be curbing spending at luxury hotels, a key hotel industry CEO says.

One analyst on Tuesday asked Host Hotels CEO Ed Walter whether he’s seeing any “sensitivity” from financial services companies around booking luxury chains such as Marriott’s Ritz-Carlton. The question was posed during Host Hotels’ fourth-quarter earnings call.

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Walter said that financial services companies – known for extravagant wining and dining of clients – aren’t shying away from posh hotels.

“I haven’t heard of any new trends relative to the financial sector,” he told analysts. “I don’t think the financial sector is back to where it was in the middle of last decade, but generally, it’s been growing at a reasonably good rate.

“We’re continuing to see corporate business coming back at Marriotts, Westins and Sheratons, as well as our Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons,” he says. “As I’ve talked to (hotel general managers) and brand partners, while I’m sure there is an occasional company still concerned about going to a luxury hotel for an event, it seems the fear of landing on the front page for doing that has largely dissipated.

Luxury hotels still have some room to run in terms of getting back to where they were in the 2006-2007 time frame, but I don’t see an impediment due to market attitude.”

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In the fall of 2008, global insurance giant AIG threw an extravagant bash at a St. Regis just days after taking a billion-dollar government bailout, making headlines around the world and prompting anger from politicians. The ensuing controversy prompted a cross-section of Fortune 500 companies to cancel luxury hotel events for fear of negative feedback. (I wrote about the phenomenon in this 2009 USA TODAY story.)

Host, the largest hotel REIT in the USA, is in a position to notice these sorts off trends since it owns luxury hotels that belong to chains such as Starwood’s St. Regis and Luxury Collection, Marriott’s Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Fairmont.

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Welcome to Hotel Check-In’s Weekly Top 10, our roundup of the most read posts on USA TODAY’s hotels blog. Here are the stories that interested you most for the week ending Friday, Feb. 10.

10. Hyatt Hotels expands in Saudi Arabia

9. Makeover Monday 4: Windsor Court’s $22 million redo

8. New York’s Helmsley hotel to become a Westin

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7. Marriott eliminates Cornhusker hotel

6. Cigar bars make comeback in luxury hotels

5. Wyndham to restore tired Howard Johnson chain’s image

4. Hotels reach out to niche markets

3. Edgy New Orleans hotel joins Marriott’s Autograph Collection

2. Donald Trump to open luxury hotel in Washington D.C.

1. Starwood Capital bullish on South Beach

Marriott’s working on opening its first hotel in downtown Buffalo, the Buffalo News reports.

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A limited-service, 96-room Courtyard by Marriott is set to occupy the first four floors of the eight-story, former Donovan State Office Building, with the rest of the floors reserved as office space.

Currently, a search on Marriott.com identifies a hotel called Buffalo Marriott Niagara but it’s actually in suburban Amherst, N.Y. The site shows rates at that hotel start at $139 a night.

The building is a block away from Buffalo Sabres games in the city’s up-and-coming Canalside area, the story says.

“The iconic brand of Marriott is finally coming into Buffalo,” Eric Recoon of Benderson Development Co. told the paper.

Benderson subsidiary Buffalo Lodging, which owns and operates about 40 hotels in the USA and Canada, is developing the hotel, the story says.

Recoon says that this specific Courtyard won’t look exactly like other Courtyard hotels.

“It’s going to be a unique urban Marriott with some amenities and attractions that are a little different than you’d find in a traditional Courtyard and will be representative of the Canalside district,” he told the paper.

When the weather turns warm, Canalside hosts lively, outdoor events such as lawn games, kayak rentals and concerts, BuffaloRising.com says.

The hotel is expected to open in late 2013.

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Marriott’s working on opening its first hotel in downtown Buffalo, N.Y., the Buffalo News reports.

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ALSO ONLINE:  Patriots QB Brady not thrilled with Buffalo hotels
ALSO ONLINE:  Patriots QB Brady apologizes to Buffalo

A limited-service, 96-room Courtyard by Marriott is set to occupy the first four floors of the eight-story, former Donovan State Office Building, with the rest of the floors reserved as office space.

Currently, a search on Marriott.com identifies a hotel called Buffalo Marriott Niagara but it’s actually in suburban Amherst, N.Y. The site shows rates at thathotel start at $139 a night.

The building is a block away from Buffalo Sabres games in the city’s up-and-coming Canalside area, the story says.

“The iconic brand of Marriott is finally coming into Buffalo,” Eric Recoon of Benderson Development Co. told the paper.

Benderson subsidiary Buffalo Lodging, which owns and operates about 40 hotels in the U.S. and Canada, is developing the hotel, the story says.

Recoon says that this specific Courtyard won’t look exactly like other Courtyard hotels.

“It’s going to be a unique urban Marriott with some amenities and attractions that are a little different than you’d find in a traditional Courtyard and will be representative of the Canalside district,” he told the paper.

When the weather turns warm, Canalside hosts lively, outdoor events such as lawn games, kayak rentals and concerts, BuffaloRising.com says.

The hotel is expected to open in late 2013.

Readers: Comments?