For the past few years that I have taken a deep interest in the hotel industry – subscribing to industry magazines, tracking hotel brands, learning about the industry etc, the one industry conference that seems to make the most “commotion” is the yearly ALIS Conference held in Los Angeles in January of every year. I was hoping that I’d be a part of Starwood Capital or Starwood Hotels by this time and I would be travelling to the ALIS Conference for my job – but next year I’m sure I’ll be there. I cant wait.

This year, the conference is from Jaunary 28th, to 30th at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA, and I’m really excited to see what announcements are going to be made this year. The ALIS Conference is the one place where almost every hotel brand has an appearance, either on the exhibit floor or via a presentation, and it also seems to be where most of the major announcements are made for the year. Ok, maybe not the major announcements for the year – but every year something is announced which is in the headlines of the industry publications – and sometimes mainstream media for a few weeks after the fact.

Here are a few announcements that I think/am almost positive will be made this week:

1. Starwood Captial’s Le Crillon brand, and an overall update of Starwood Capital’s Hotel Groups plans.
2. The launching of Starwood’s aloft & element websites (aloft’s site was already launched today, Sunday 1/27/08).
3. Marriott & Ian Schrager’s new brand. The name, renderings, and locations of the initial few properties.
4. ALOT of announcements with the whole “Green Movement”.

And hopefully there will be a few surprises as well! I’m hoping to be able to post as much information as possible when I come across it over the next few days.

andrew@alconic-inc.com