Aug 21st, 2012 at 1:30PM: Today's business traveler carries between three and four mobile devices with them while on the road, states data from a new survey from Four Points by Sheraton. This Starwood Hotels and resorts brand surveyed 6,000 global business travelers to find what devices they are most likely to use while traveling – and what hotels can best do to help these tech-savvy travelers.
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'Road Warriors' Stay Connected While Traveling
Aug 21st, 2012 at 1:30PM: Today's business traveler carries between three and four mobile devices with them while on the road, states data from a new survey from Four Points by Sheraton. This Starwood Hotels and resorts brand surveyed 6,000 global business travelers to find what devices they are most likely to use while traveling – and what hotels can best do to help these tech-savvy travelers.
Business travelers ...Find hotel deals with new booking site Guestmob
Mar 22nd, 2012 at 2:00PM: The Internet has brought us many ways to research and book hotels at prices much lower than the hotels' published rate. Aggregate sites like Kayak and Orbitz give you the best available rate (BAR) without pre-payment on a specific hotel, while "opaque" sites like Priceline and Hotwire allow you to bid for a room below BAR but the actual property remains hidden until after you book and the purchase ...Element Miami launches with eco-friendly amenities and options
Mar 20th, 2012 at 3:00PM: Promising "Balanced Living on the Road," Starwood Hotels & Resorts' newest property, Element Miami International Airport, opened this week with a hot pilot program to showcase its commitment to fitness and green design.
The hotel is putting pedal-powered generators on stationary bikes in its fitness centers, enabling guests to generate electricity and charge their own personal electronic ...Westin opens first hotel in Panama to the tune of $100 million
Feb 4th, 2012 at 1:00PM: Panama, ranked the number one travel destination by The New York Times and an emerging destination by pubs like Fodor's and Travel + Leisure, has just gotten a little hotter with the opening of its first Westin hotel.
The newly-opened Westin Playa Bonita Panamá is 20 minutes outside Panama City, flanked by both rainforest and beach. The hotel boasts 611 luxury rooms and suites, six ...Starwood first to launch user ratings and reviews on its hotel websites
Oct 25th, 2011 at 1:00PM: Reader-generated hotel reviews - and the sites that host them - have gotten a bad rap lately. But, it's for a good reason. In July, TripAdvisor came under scrutiny when it was revealed that some hotels were paying TripAdvisor users to post positive reviews of their properties. There have also been concerns that hotel employees and management were posting positive reviews of their properties in ...The Ritz-Carlton Checks In To Foursquare
Jun 29th, 2011 at 2:30PM: As global hotel companies go, we're always pleasantly surprised by luxury brand Ritz-Carlton's rapid acceptance of and moves towards innovation in the social media space. At the corporate level, they've been quick to adapt to and utilize sites like Twitter (@RitzCarlton), and, at the property level, often engaged on social media sites in a way that their luxury competitors are not.
Now, the brand ...Starwood makes checking in a social affair
May 11th, 2011 at 12:00PM: Starwood Preferred Guest, the rewards program for such brands as Sheraton and Westin, just took "checking in" from the front desk to the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android. The hotel company is launching a new program with social media company foursquare to increase member benefits.
According to foursquare's blog, this partnership is "the first truly global loyalty integration of its kind," an ...Starwood hotels plans to recycle hotel shampoos, soaps
Apr 23rd, 2011 at 4:00PM: Some hotel guests take the mini soaps and shampoos from hotel bathrooms, others leave the pint-sized amenities behind - which option is better for the environment?
Did you know your unused hotel toiletries could be put toward recycling efforts to help people in need?
That's the premise behind Clean the World, a social enterprise working with hotels around the world in an effort to help ...Starwood Preferred Guest program offers FaceTime customer support
Nov 8th, 2010 at 2:30PM:
As a kid, I remember playing with a video phone at the local phone store - and thinking how cool it would be if we all had access to video phones in the future. Well, the future came, and along with a total lack of jet packs, video phones never really took off.
Apple has managed to change that with their FaceTime application, and while it is by no means the first video calling application, ...Aloft Hotels to open in Cleveland
Aug 24th, 2010 at 1:00PM: Starwood Hotels is branching out its boutique brand to Cleveland, Ohio. Aloft Cleveland Downtown is scheduled to open in early 2013 as part of the Flats East Bank development, which is being touted as Cleveland's newest, upscale mixed-use complex.
The new Aloft Cleveland will offer 150 guest rooms, all featuring the typical tech amenities and including a social environment for guests to mix and ...W New York Downtown opens on Wall Street
Aug 23rd, 2010 at 3:00PM: Downtown New York has been slowly building up its reputation for years, but 2010 seems to be the year of openings. In June we showed you the exclusive images of the first hotel to be open in the Wall Street area with views of Ground Zero, and now more planned hotels are finally opening their doors to travelers in an effort to help rebuild the downtown New York area.
The W New York Downtown - ...Mall of America gets luxury hotel on the Fed's dime
Aug 20th, 2010 at 11:00AM: Good news for mall junkies: Bloomington, Minnesota's vaunted Mall of America will get a luxury hotel in the near future -- thanks in part to federal stimulus funds.
Plans for the hotel have been in the works for several years, but had to be quashed two years ago due to lack of funding, says USA Today.
Now, Hennepin County officials have granted the Bloomington Port Authority the ability to ...Starwood to open seven hotels in NYC this year
Jul 27th, 2010 at 11:00AM: New York City is getting a few new addresses.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced its plans to open seven more hotels in New York City, upping the hotel's portfolio by 50 percent in the Big Apple. Starwood currently operates 12 hotels in New York City across six of its nine brands, and expects to have 18 properties open in the city by year's end, including the local debut of the Aloft and ...Starwood's scavenger hunt rewards players with free hotel nights
May 11th, 2010 at 12:00PM: You know the game - you love the game - you win the game, especially if it means going home with free travel perks! Scavenger hunts have been used for team building exercises, corporate functions and the bachelorette-parties-gone-bad, but this time, the scavenger hunts takes on a new prize: free nights at a Starwood hotel.
That's right - Starwood Hotels is hosting a social media scavenger hunt ...Escape the ordinary Dallas hotel at The Joule
May 11th, 2010 at 11:00AM:
Dallas is not a city known for boutique hotels, but that's been changing thanks to properties like The Joule, a unique 129-room upscale hotel that first opened in 2008. Constructed in a former 1920's Neo-Gothic bank building, this sophisticated retreat combines contemporary design with the unique architectural touches, world-class artwork by the likes of Andy Warhol and on-site fine dining and ...W Hotels drops two landmark New York properties; Wyndham's Fashion 26 enters NYC
Apr 13th, 2010 at 12:00PM:
New York revealed its newest fashion accessory today: Wyndham Fashion 26 hotel, a luxury hotel in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. Following a few months of delays in opening the trendy hotel, Fashion 26 finally greeted guests into the new art-and-style space.
The hotel is located across the street from the famous Fashion Institute of Technology, and set in one of New York's trendiest ...The W Hollywood won't let guests use its pool
Apr 2nd, 2010 at 12:30PM:
In what must be a first for a big hotel, the W Hollywood is telling guests they are not permitted to use the rooftop pool.
digg_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2010/04/02/the-w-hollywood-wont-let-guests-use-its-pool/?d'; It seems ludicrous, but it's true. That's because Starwood, which owns the combination hotel/residence property at Hollywood and Vine, contracted a slew of hotel services ...Starwood ordered to pay $3m for spying on employee
Mar 17th, 2010 at 3:00PM: File this under: What were they thinking?!?
Starwood Hotels and Resorts was found guilty of spying on a New York employee and has been ordered to pay $3 million in damages.
Apparently, the hotel set up a hidden camera to watch 46-year-old Moises Mendez, a baker at the Westin Hotel at Times Square, following repeated complaints from Mendez that he was being discriminated by the hotel.
...Aloft Hotels expands global presence in 2010
Mar 16th, 2010 at 3:00PM:
Aloft Hotels, the newest brand from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, announced it would expand its overseas presence in 2010. The hotel plans to open 10 new properties in 2010, half of them internationally.
Aloft is planning to open three new hotels in India and one in Brussels, in addition to adding hotels throughout the U.S., including two New York City properties – one in ...Feds Try to Halt Starwood Suit of Hilton to Chase Criminal Charges
Feb 25th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Usually, it's what goes on inside the hotels that is mysterious. Illicit trysts, quiet business deals and the occasional rendez-vous of spies (very occasional, I suspect) are what we'd love to believe happens in behind the closed doors of hotels up-market and down. The reality, however, is far more interesting. There is plenty of espionage going on in the hotel world, but it's the hotels ...
