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Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced the further de-smokification of their brands with 300 Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton locations in the US, Caribbean and Canada going smoke-free by December 31st, 2008. Previously in January 2006, Sheraton's sister brand Westin went smoke-free throughout the US, Canada and Caribbean - with the properties in Fuji, Australia and Scotland following due to its popularity, and Marriott announced a similar policy in 2006 as well.
What this means is over 8,000 rooms where guests were previously allowed to smoke will undergo extensive cleaning, public spaces will undergo the same process. Not to worry, those who just cannot bear to be away from a smoke will still be able to utilize designated smoking areas at each property.
What will this mean for Sheraton's convention business? Lately Starwood has been repositioning their Sheraton brand as a convention hotel, and according to some of our members who posted on our OpenThread for Marriott's No-Smoking policy, Marriott lost some business due to this change.
What do you think? Will you be more or less likely to book a room in a Sheraton or Four Points because of the non-smoking policy? Does it make a difference to you one way or another? Chime in this OpenThread and let us know!
In continuing with our Loyalty Program Guide we just stumbled across this offer from Starwood Preferred Guests program encouraging new members to stay at a Four Points.
Why? Because you can earn up to 4,000 points. According to this latest promotion:
Just stay four nights at any Four Points by Sheraton hotel worldwide now through November 18, 2007 and receive 4,000 Starpoints®.
If you're already an SPG members you can also register online to take advantage of the offer. That's pretty cool. We just wish we had four nights to kill at a Four Points somewhere.
Rehab failure Tom Sizemore was busted for crystal meth at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Bakersfield, California.
Bakersfield police say the 45-year-old actor was arrested outside the Four Points Sheraton hotel after officers responded to the hotel and found methamphetamine in his vehicle.
A police spokesman says Sizemore and another man -- identified as 33-year-old Jason Salcido -- had become involved in an argument in the lobby of the hotel when they were not allowed to check in.
The officers found two bags of methamphetime and drug-related paraphernalia in Sizemore's car. We guess Tom Sizemore wasn't impressed with the hotel's Best Brews program and need something a little...um...stronger.
We've got no idea where the name comes from, but it's about as bad as the place itself. The centerpiece of the small, poorly lit space is a giant flat screen TV, tuned to Girlfriends. Our lovely bartender did a good job of keeping our mugs full, though she's "Not much of a beer person," and couldn't warn us off what turned out to be a terrible Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. The only local/"interesting" choices on the beer menu were Brooklyn Lager and Brooklyn Pilsner--available in tons of bars around the city.
What would normally be a bright spot--the happy hour discount--wasn't really that great either: It's comparable to loads of seedy midtown bars with the same amount of character as U and Mie. The place does have cute novelty cocktail napkins, though. We're filling ours out to read like a memo to Scott Kerksman: There's plenty more work to be done.
It is safe to say that Scott Kerksman is one of the luckiest men in America right now. He's just been appointed (actually voted for out of 7,800 other applicants) the Chief Beer Officer for the Four Points by Sheraton's Starwood Brand. He spent a "whirlwind" week in New York, meeting all the Starwood hotel execs and even ringing in the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Now, he's gearing up to tour all the Four Points hotels and host their Happy Hours along with hitting up Beer Festivals, and touring local beer breweries. "I think I've made a lot of people jealous" with this new job, Kerksman says in the understatement of the year.
Then again, life was not all that bad for Kerksman before the CBO gig.
A native of New Mexico, Kerks got his first exposure to beer brewing when his brother gave him a home brewery kit at the age of 21. (Legal drinking age, of course.) Together with his brother and a friend, the trio started experimenting with different flavors and after a while, Kerkmans felt confident enough to start working as a brewer at a local brewery where he worked himself up to head brewer. This set off a career of traveling all over to brew, including to Alaska where he was one of six brewers behind Alaskan Amber.
For the past few years, however, he has been working in Phoenix, Arizona overseeing the Draft magazine, a publication he co-founded with two friends, and judging beer.
The Full Q & A with Scott Kerkmans after the jump.
Scott Kerkmans is Four Points by Sheraton's newest Chief Beer Officer aka CBO and despite his youthful age of 27, he wisely knows that he can't have his MySpace page public for all the world to see. Darnit we were hoping for some nude shots of Kerks doing a keg stand or even playing beer pong in his boxers with a cardboard Burger King hat on his head. Instead we got a picture of a pick-up truck in the sunset and this quote:
"Many people fish all their lives, never realizing it is not fish they are after."
Whatever! Luckily we can put a face to the name, thanks to these promo shots of him in his newly installed position as head of the hotel chain's Best Brews program. Kerks is obviously the man for this job having started up the beer enthusiasts magazine, Draft Magazine, whose MySpace page is not set to private. Sadly, it only has three friends.
Finally after drawing out their worldwide search for Chief Beer Officer for nearly six months, Sheraton's Four Points Hotels have announced that a lucky 27-year-old from Arizona will step into this unique position as part of the hotels' New Best Brews Program.
Scott Kerkmans already rang the bell today on the NYSE, just the first step in his position which will take him across the world, cultivating and promoting the Best Brews at brewery tours, beer festivals and of course, good old-fashioned bars.
So what makes Kerkmans so qualified for this job? This:
Since the night his brother gave him a home brewing kit, Kerkmans has been extremely passionate about everything beer, from its production and pairings to sampling stouts and sharing his rich knowledge. ...
And this:
Kerkmans has dedicated both his professional and personal life to beer. This 27-year old Phoenix resident and former Head Brewer / Brewery Manager spent the past year starting and growing DRAFT, a national lifestyle magazine focused on beer and beer culture, in which he reviews this glorious libation on a weekly basis. He is also a certified beer judge who spends much of his free time seeking out new brews.
In the end, Kerkmans received 12,759 votes from people who thought he was the perfect fit. So now he will be off to visit each Four Points hotel around the world and oversee the Best Brews programs at each property. Beer lovers who didn't get the job can still pull up to a Four Points and select from nearly 300 brews in bottles and on a tap and dream about what coulda been.
Four Points by Sheraton has hyped up their search for CBO--Chief Beer Officer--as part of their dedication to all things brew-related.
Well, one blogger was able to check-in on Four Points' promise to become "The Beer Hotel" and the execution of their "Best Brews" services.
Rick Lyke of the Lyke 2 Drink blog checked out a Four Points in Norwalk, Conn. and found this:
The small bar...had four draughts: Paulaner Pilsner, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Farmington River Hop River IPA and Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter. The nine domestic bottled brews ranged from Bud Light to Smuttynose IPA. The 11 bottled imports included Chimay Red, Duvel, Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale and Pilsner Urquell. That's a solid range for a hotel bar no matter where you are traveling.
The Best Brews program is clearly a marketing gimmick by Four Points, but one that deserves support from beer lovers. It's common to read and hear the complaints of beer fans when they encounter uninspired selections that only range from light beer to national domestic lagers. This is a case of a major hotel chain rolling out the red carpet for beer drinkers.
Right, because why should wine and champagne-lovers have all the fun?
Where: United States
