Starwood’s aloft Launches Website!

Just in time for the opening of the ALIS Conference in Los Angeles, CA tomorrow, Starwood Hotels & Resorts launched the full version of Aloft’s website! The website can be found by visiting www.alofthotels.com or clicking on the aloft logo on the bottom of any of Starwood’s websites.

The aloft website features a new logo color – a purple/pink color rather than the blue that we’ve all see up until this point, and the website itself has a lot of purple/pink colors in it. No word yet if that’s the new “color” of aloft, or if they intend on changing the color as time goes on (that would actually be pretty neat – the color of the logo on the website and the background colors change every so often), or if they are just going to give aloft’s website a pink/purple color.

Click to see a bigger image

The website overall has a very hip/modern feel, which is what the aloft brand is trying to achieve. Currently it is pretty much fully functional, except obviously you cannot book any rooms due to none of the hotels actually opening yet. The aloft website currently is placed upon Starwood’s template driven website (which I mentioned about in this post) so it has the functionality of most of the other Starwood websites – facts on the hotel, photos (currently all promotional images – none specific to the individual property yet).

Since the information on the future hotels are not yet complete, I checked out an existing Starwood hotel using the aloft template to see if I could get any more information on the website – (https://www.starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1234 – W Times Square) you’ll notice where the “Book Now” link will be located (between the photo montage, and text on the hotel overview page), plus I noticed that aloft is utilizing a right side menu instead of the more common left side menu for options, etc as you go through the site.

Additionally, the aloft website has a locations map built right into it (Click “areas” on the upper left corner of the screen) which shows “Future Openings” and “Ready for Stay”. This small feature is a great idea, the closest I have ever seen a competitor do something like this is Cambria Suites which currently has a site called “Cambria Suites Live” (in fact, Cambria Suites Live even has live webcams at some locations.) – except the only way I’ve been able to discover a link to it via their developer/franchise website – this type of feature should be put front and center – especially for a new hotel brand because the average guest would never care to click on the Developer/Franchise website. Starwood has linked up all of the alofts in North America opening in 2008, giving some information on the individual property. This is excellent marketing on Starwood’s part, because it’s essentially free, and builds up excitement and interest in hotels that may not open for another 1 to 2 years.

One thing that stuck out is the check-in/check-out times for all the aloft hotels are 3PM check-in with a 10AM check-out. Nothing is written in stone yet – but having a 10AM checkout is pretty early for this type of hotel. As it is, I was upset that I had to check out at 11AM from The Borgata two weeks ago – thinking that was too early, but setting a brand-wide checkout at 10AM I think is pushing it. We’ll have to see if it changes when the hotels finally open. I also wonder if it has anything to do with the unique design and layout of the aloft property – perhaps there is something that is requiring more time to clean each room? Or maybe as part of the brand promise to developers/owners they are planning on using less workers to clean the rooms, thus requiring more time in between guests’ stays?

Right after I checked out the aloft site I also checked to see if Starwood launched the Element website, (http://www.elementhotels.com)  but it still is showing its  flash intro, that hasn’t substantially changed for over a year now, but for the additions of a video and some links on the final page of the flash page. I’m hoping that the Element site will launch later today or within the next few days, as the first Element is scheduled to open almost at the same time as the first aloft (Lexington, MA) both opening July 1st, 2008.

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Category: construction, design, Hotel Development, Hotels, marketing, Starwood Hotels, websites