News more recent than this has suggested the $500 fee was a "joke" and that there are many fictitious reviews from non-visiting people. I am not affiliated with this hotel in any way. Just want to state this article is now biased based on current information.

Honestly, the winning photo is bad too. It doesn't follow the horizon, thus is very distorted. And, there's a huge gap in the left. This only shows lack of patience in getting a good image. Thing is, I can get better photos with Hugin ( http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ ) holding a camera by hand than this one on a rig. If on a rig, it's alignment should be bullet-proof.