Virgin Hotels Launches Website; Plans to Virginize North America First

September 21, 2010 at 1:33 PM | by juliana | Comment (1)

In chatting mid-flight with Sir Richard Branson back in June, we only had thing on our mind--When will Virgin Hotels open? And the answer he gave us had us tingling for a few days after we landed even if it was rather vague. He said then that Virgin was "not many months away from making an announcement" regarding their first hotel.

As it turns out, Virgin Hotels was apparently not many months away from creating a website as Hudson Crossing tipped us off that VirginHotels.com is now officially up and running.

There's a cheeky Do Not Disturb sign anchoring the page ("Opportunity knocking", "Shall we go back to your place?", etc) but most of the information is aimed at developers who want to partner with Virgin for a hotel brand. Still, we do learn a little bit about Virgin Hotels' philosophy and more importantly, their locations.

While we always thought Londontown would be at the top of the Virginizing list, it turns out Virgin Hotels will start in North America--New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Washington DC. Not so coincidentally, Virgin America flies to those destinations.

The design spaces will be similar to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses--places where folk can "get work done, nourish and refresh themselves, meet other interesting people or just take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city." And Virgin Hotels promises that technology will play a huge role in the guest's hotel stay. We're praying that means free WiFi and super-cool check-in technology. Although, we sincerely hope the hotels look more like the Clubhouses at LHR and JFK than at EWR.

Naturally, we're incredibly sexed up by the launch of this website and we'll be stalking Virgin Hotels and their key players (that includes Raul Leal, formerly of Desires Hotels) until we can eke out more about the first location. But until then, if you've got your own scoop on bedding a Virgin, please let us know!

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