Friendship Hotel

[joham]

1. They stayed in Friendship Hotel last night. (taken from one of China's textbooks) Without 'the' is the sentence fine?
They stayed in the Friendship Hotel last night. (L.G. Alexander says to use 'the' before a hotel name in his grammar book)
2. We were lucky to meet the artist William Brown. (Martin Hewings says to use 'the' in his ADVANCED GRAMMAR IN USE)
Film star Gloria Fox said,...(from Ronald Carter: EXPLORING GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT)

SO my question is: We were lucky to meet artist(or Artist?) William Brown.

[Anglika]

You can omit the article, though it then sounds like a journalist using a sort of short-hand writing in a report.