Notebook

In Brief

Intourist goes upmarket

LOS ANGELES — Management  representatives  of Moscow’s Intourist hotel have held talks here with an international hotel chain (believed to be Marriot Corp.) on renovation. The 21-story Soviet-style Intourist, centrally located just off Red Square, has a  reputation for seediness. Yet it has also long held the attention of the US chain. The Intourist has lost ground in recent  years as other major  hotels like the Metropol and National benefited  from Western-style  renovations. A Marriot representative confirmed the chain’s involvement  in ‘a Moscow project’ and said the head of the company’s operations in Russia, Nick Ward, was participating  in the L.A. talks.