And then another Aloft popped up in Rancho Cucamonga, and we were all, "whatever, Lexington, we're not waiting around for you."
Then we scored some pics of the first-ever Element, which was set to open in Lexington, and we were excited all over again -- especially since it looked a lot more spacious and comfy than the Aloft we visited in the meantime.
And today, July 1st, marks the birth of both the Aloft Lexington and Element Lexington properties, bringing Starwood just that much closer to world domination.
Thanks to a generous insider we have a ton of pics from inside the first ever Element Hotel in Lexington, Mass. which we hear is going to open next week (not July 15.)
Element Hotels is the extended-stay brand for Starwood Hotels and is a spin-off brand of Westin Hotels. Much like Aloft (a spin-off of the W Hotels brand) is good for one night near the airport, Element is for business travelers who are put several days on a project in random places like Lexington.
Thus each room is very spacious complete with a souped-up work area and a kitchen. Essentially, it's the antithesis of Aloft.
Also, each hotel will aim to be LEED-certified, all rooms will feature the Westin Heavenly bed and spa-like bathrooms; a state-of-the-art fitness center on-site, complimentary breakfast and organic "pantry" options, and complimentary bikes for guests to tool around on.
But why do we need to write any more? Just take a look at the pics! (There's six in total.)
With all the talk about Starwood's Aloft Hotelsfinally opening its doors, don't think that we've forgotten about Aloft's younger brother, Element Hotels.
The first ever Element will be in Lexington, Massachusetts and is scheduled to open either July 1 or July 15--depending on which portion of Starwood's website you're viewing. Go figure.
But you can't make reservations through the Element website until after July 15. So we're guessing the opening date is the 15th.
That makes Element's opening occur almost simultaneously with the Aloft Lexington which is located adjacent to the Element.
Yet unlike the Aloft Lexington which lost out to those silly Canadians, the Element Lexington WILL be sticking to its initial goal of being the first Element to open in the world.
April 22nd is Earth Day so all this week we will be bringing you the latest news on Green Hotels. Got some eco-friendly news you wanna share? Let us know.
Starwood's newest upscale business travel hotel brand, Element Hotels, are going green.
Starwood has required that all Element hotels pursue the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED certification requirements. Already, Starwood has used the first Element property in Lexington, Mass. as the guinea pig for green building of the brand. Such eco-friendly practices include:
energy efficient stainless steel appliances and lighting, water-efficient faucets and fixtures and bins for paper, plastic and glass which make recycling easy. Filtered water in guest rooms and amenity dispensers in the showers reduce plastic bottle waste.
In addition, ELEMENT hotels use low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints and carpets with up to 100% recycled content and anti-microbial carpet pads which improve indoor air quality for guests and staff. Guests driving hybrid cars are rewarded with priority parking.
Even the ubiquitous "Do Not Disturb" sign gets a green makeover, replacing the traditional paper tag with the environmentally-friendly magnet.
But Element says you won't have to sacrifice the pleasure of hotel comforts. The Element hotels will still feature Westin's Heavenly Bed, spa-like bathrooms with oversize showers and rain showerheads (which are water efficient of course), a state-of-the-art fitness center, complimentary breakfast and organic pantry options, and complimentary bikes for guests.
The Lexington property should open in July 2008 with locations in the Las Vegas, Houston and Baltimore suburbs to follow.
The site follows a standard Starwood Hotels layout and look but since Element has been so vague for so long, it's nice to have some visual imagery here about what the place will look and feel like.
You can really see the Westin DNA here (remember Aloft is a spin-off of W Hotels) with the "good for you and good for the earth" approach. Elements are "bathed" in natural light and have open-air designs. Food served is healthy grab-n-go gourmet and all guestrooms (otherwise known here as "private spaces") employ eco-friendly practices like paper recycling bins, amenity dispensers rather than mini-toiletry bottles and Energy-Star rated appliances.
We're actually more excited for Element than Aloft. There is something about it that looks approachable. Aloft seems too crazy and too pink. Element seems soothing, which is probably its intended purpose.
Anyways, the first Element will open in Lexington on October 1st. It's right next to the Aloft Lexington which should now open in September (instead of July.)
Thanks to a tipster in the Northeast we were able to see some construction shots of
Aloft Lexington in Massachusetts, which is scheduled to be the very first Aloft hotel to open later this summer.
And since the sister brand Element Hotel is going up next to Aloft, we were able to get a report on that as well.
Freezing tipster writes:
Went by aloft / element in Lexington MA recently. tons of workers -- the two properties are right next to each other right off 128 South (think Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley if you are west coast based). nice to see the construction site was very active and crowded -- should be able to open by the July 1 2008 target date. Not much done inside, but the outside is coming together.
One more picture of the Aloft/Element tag team duo after the jump.
In truth, the Aloft hype machine first started its engine back at the tail end of 2004 with their Aloft-a-Go-Go airstream trailer which we believe is still trucking and blogging around the country. While an Aloft Hotel did open in Second Life, we aren't counting virtual openings here. Instead, we are counting down the days to September 2008 when the first real-life Aloft should open in Lexington, MA.
This year we also learned more about the Element brand (A spin-off of Westin. Aloft is a spin-off of W Hotels.) Element will be green and eco-friendly in as many parts of its hotels as it can be, cater mostly to the business traveler and will pop up in secondary markets across the U.S. including Lexington, MA--next door to Aloft.
Aloft will expand aggressively in the U.S. but also across the world. World, are you ready for this? By the time the first hotel in nine months, we think you should be. We certainly are.
But just so everyone can keep track, after the jump we have the list of proposed Aloft and Element locations. Our Element locations are pretty solidified (Thanks, Stephanie!) but we had to cull the Aloft locations from our emails, news releases and the Aloft website. If you hear of another city getting one of these new Starwood babies, let us know.
The Starwood group's extended stay spin-off, Element Hotels, keeps on announcing new hotels, without having even opened the first one yet. Each announcement makes the chain sound even better but it's so easy to say that when we can't test them out.
This next Element is planned for "travelers to the home of Mickey and Minnie" which of course is in Orlando, Florida and will be known as the Element Orlando Convention Center. Apparently with the presence of Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Studios, Sea World and The Kennedy Space Center, Orlando is just crying out for an extended-stay hotel so Element is the perfect solution.
Element loves to talk about its plans to make guests thrive, and they also want to encourage our productivity while enabling us to relax: all at once. They say that having swiveling modular furniture that we can change around in our rooms will help us do that and we'll leave the Orlando Element "knowing what it truly means to wake up and thrive". After too many days visiting Mickey and Minnie and their colleagues we suspect we won't really feel like we're thriving.
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by Jenna
This year we also learned more about the Element brand (A spin-off of Westin. Aloft is a spin-off of W Hotels.) Element will be 
