With the Aloft hype machine in full-effect as Starwood begins to close in on world domination, it's refreshing to see an Aloft property that has taken things (albeit ever-so-slightly) into their own hands as far as making the hotel feel a bit less, well, corporate.
The Aloft Washington-Dulles Airport, which is slated to open in early November, has their own blog and, honestly, we're really happy it exists, if only because it doesn't look like it was created by the pink-loving, sometimes slang-abusing Starwood marketing squad.
While a good bit of the content on the blog is no more than copied-and-pasted press releases, some of the stuff is very honest-to-goodness, community-specific news and updates on the project's construction progress.
Our fave entries are the staff intros because they give the property an identity and the personal entries help to tone down the one-of-many feeling of the rapidly-multiplying brand. Also, fun fact: the biggest fish the GM ever caught was "a 4.5 feet long / 2 feet in girth Rockfish."
Entitled "It's Fun to Vacation at Clothing-Optional and Nudist Resorts," the blog is written by owners Tom and Mary Clare and covers all sorts of topics ranging from current issues that affect the nudist community to last-minute cancellations and availability at the Inn.
Since the Inn prides itself on being a friendly, welcoming and supportive place for first-time clothing-optional vacationers, the blog features a ton of content focused on giving first-timers the kind of comfort and encouragement they may need to debut their goodies with confidence.
Ok. If you are a devoted reader of HotelChatter and you catch our semi-regular recaps on Bill Marriott's "Marriott on the Move" blog, then you will know that we have always doubted that Bill, at the tender age of 76, is a real blogger.
In fact, in our last recap of a Marriott post we surmised how Bill "writes" his blog posts.
The protocol we believe goes from Bill Marriott to his secretary's steno pad, then to her typewriter then to the communications department via interoffice memo...
While we still don't know the exact protocol of the blog writing, Bill did confess to not writing every blog post. Derek Gale at Hotels Magazine reports:
Mr. Marriott also admitted this morning that when it comes to his blog, he write some of the posts, and his PR department writes and fleshes out some of the posts for him. But he says most of the ideas are his, and notes that he is "still waiting for my commission" on the US$4 million in business that has been booked from his blog!
Sigh. It's like this, we knew the truth would be ugly. But we aren't prepared to deal with this heartbreak so early in the AM.
Gone are the fantasies of us and Bill blogging and laughing side-by-side in Starbucks, tagging one another on Facebook pictures, lugging our laptops through the airports together, helping each other search under hotel room desks for outlets, griping about internet fees on our check-out bill--oh the pain is too much! The future looked so bright for us.
Alas, he was not the blogger we hoped him to be. But the folks at Marriott's communication dept. deserve a big raise.
A few months ago the marketing persona of the Standard Hotel group, Stan d'Arde, was kicked off Facebook since he's not a real person. But in the background since December, Stan's been quietly blogging away on the Stan d'Arde blog. You can't keep a good man down.
Corporate blogs are all the rage these days, presumably designed to let the corporate moo-vahs and shake-ahs communicate directly with adoring fans who want to know more. And in the hotel world, Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, has jumped onto the heap with his blog, Marriott on the Move.
While we are still convinced Bill is dictating his blog posts to a secretary, he does try to keep relevant. For instance, there's his take on immigration reform as it relates to the travel industry, and his post about the company initiative to teach employees Spanish. Of course, there's some questionable posts like his recommendation of "The Bucket List" but our fave is his latest.
Here, Bill talks about his chain's historic properties, including Chicago's Blackstone (with a wonderfully produced video covering the grand re-opening), and Dublin's Shelbourne.
He also has this to say about The Mayflower in Washington, DC:
The Mayflower hotel in Washington, D.C. was the site of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inaugural ball back in the early 1930s. Also, J. Edgar Hoover used to have lunch at the Mayflower all during his tenure. Eleanor Roosevelt had afternoon tea there, and there have been many other famous people who have stayed there. What a lot of people don't know is that, in addition to being a famous hotel, the Mayflower is one of more than 140 Renaissance hotels around the world.
Mr. M conveniently omits the Mayflower's more recent notoriety -- it's the same hotel where Client 9, aka former New York State Luv Guv Eliot Spitzer, spent the night in room 871 conducting some unofficial gubernatorial hoo-hah.
Sure, it's not great PR for the chain, Bill, but it sure would make for awesome post fodder if you blogged about it.
British hotel chain Apex has five hotels across Britain, including the Apex City of London, three Apex hotels in Edinburgh and the Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa in Dundee. As well as claiming to be the leading operator of 4-star hotels in the UK, they're also proud of their environmental record.
So proud, in fact, that they started a small blog about it called Jo Blogs, named after their environmental director, Jo Harbisher. To date, the blog entries are fairly few and far between, a criticism we level at plenty of hotel blogs. But they do report about some important results like a series of environmental awards that the Apex Hotel group has won of late.
That was early days and the blogging has improved a little bit since then. There are a few more posts, and they do contain legitimate news about the Angler's Resort--for example, their excitement at winning the Hotel Opening of the Year Award at the recent Hotel World Awards in Vegas. We were also intrigued by their post about minibars; apparently theirs includes an intimacy kit "which comes outfitted with your very own personal 'friend'".
Marriott Hotels are no stranger to blogging: Bill himself has been blogging away for over a year now. And since the start of this year, the head chef of Marriott has had his own blogging gig with the new Marriott in the Kitchen blog.
Unlike yesterday's disappointment with the Jumby Bay Resort blog, the people at Marriott have obviously got more of a clue about what makes a blog that readers will keep coming back to.
Brad Nelson, officially the vice president culinary and corporate chef of Marriott International, began with a post about how he started out as a chef, and how he learned the mantra he still works by: "You're only as good as your last meal."
5 Comments - Add Yours
by Jenna
