http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/news.html W Hotels Rapid Global Expansion with the Rebranding of Aloft Hotels Aloft Hotels, A Vision of W Hotels, to be unified with the luxury W Hotels and Resorts brand by June 2012 NEW YORK (BUSINESS WIRE) -- W Hotels Worldwide today announced plans to refresh and remodel all Aloft Hotels to upgrade them to the luxury W Hotels brand. "We are excited to further expand W's worldwide portfolio by taking our popular Aloft brand of hotels to the luxury level. The Aloft brand has been a wild success with our Gen Y customers. Thanks to the economic recovery and customer feedback, we're embracing the opportunity to bring this customer base directly into the W Hotels brand," said Eva Harper, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide and Le Méridien. "These new W Hotels will offer guests a new luxury way to stay, amidst innovative design and programming, in more of the world's popular cities."
Almost assuredly so. Best regards, William R. Sanders Social Media Specialist Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com
It sure would be nice to get real cups and glasses. We stay primarily at Starwood properties, but earlier this week stayed at a Four Seasons. It was wonderful to have real cups once again. Of course they had one of those newfangled coffee machines, but at least we got real cups. When I am at a Sheraton, I usually go to the club lounge and grab a cup so I don't have to use paper. Yuk to paper.
This did come as a bit of a surprise to me, but I was far more surprised to hear that St. Regis is going to incorporate and rebrand all of the Four Points in the Starwood family.
Really? I had heard the opposite, that all St Regis hotels were going to become Four Points in order to decrease the number of brands in Starwood's portfolio.
It's easy to understand why you two are confused. They will actually remain as two separate brands, but the Four Points by Sheraton is being rebranded as Four Points by St Regis. The great part of this is that Plats will finally get a better Plat check-in amenity of 500 points or a six pack of microbrew beers. Over the next three years, the goal is that all Four Points hotels and resorts will achieve Four Star / Four Diamond ratings. The new partnership with the Top Chef television series is expected to provide celebrity chef restaurants in all Four Points properties!
Is that the Aloft that used to be a Days Inn? (The Days Inn Lakeshore was completely gutted and renovated to create the W Chicago Lakeshore.)
The W Chicago Lakeshore property has just been sold by Starwood for $126 million, but it will remain a W managed by Starwood. "Chesapeake plans to spend between $35 million and $38 million to renovate the W Chicago-Lakeshore, which it expects to start in fourth quarter 2013." Chesapeake also owns the W Chicago City Center. No foolin'! http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimor...8/chesapeake-lodging-w-chicago-lakeshore.html
I missed this thread when it started 16 months ago, so thanks for bringing it to my attention On a more serious note, the general consensus has been that the W City Center is much better managed than the W Lakeshore. This sale should be good news.
