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Westin Launches New Mobile Site For Cell-Phone Enabled, Laptop-Disabled Travelers
Westin Hotels just launched a new mobile site at westin.mobi, offering basic functionality like finding hotels, reserving rooms, and checking reservations.
The project is part and parcel of Westin's ongoing efforts to expand their digital offerings, and it also puts the brand in the same category as other hotels with expanded cell-phone friendly offerings. Now they too are available to travelers who head into strange cities with no reservation, no laptop, a last generation smartphone but a functionally limitless bank account. So if you're among that quirky crowd, the Westin family welcomes you.
Tags: Hotel Websites / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
The Chatwal Hotel: New Opening Date, Old Website
Update: The Chatwal has had this website up for a while, as we reported last year, but since the hotel never made its promised opening date of late 2008 we totally forgot about the website. And it looks like there is really nothing new on this site to report on either. Still, we apologize for slacking off and we won't do it again. Or in other words: "Thank you sir! May we have another?"
The Chatwal New York has been on our radar for awhile, but details on the Vikram Chatwal property have been few and far between. The latest we heard, courtesy of the Leading Hotels of the World website, was that the hotel will open in "Spring 2010." But an important milestone in the progress of any hotel opening we're tracking is the debut of a website. And looky here, The Chatwal New York now has one!
Tags: Hotel Rebranding / Hilton Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Logos / Hotel Websites / → All Tags
Hilton Hotels Get a New Logo, New Website and New Name
There's been a lot happening with the bigger hotel chains recently. Westin unveiled a new website. Renaissance by Marriott unveiled pretty much a new life and now Hilton Hotels has unveiled a new logo, a new website, a new headquarters (in Maryland) and even, a new name. But much like the change we saw at the Hilton San Francisco this morning, it's nothing game-changing.
The new Hilton name is now Hilton Worldwide. Previously, the brand went by Hilton Hotels Corp. which was probably just to corporatey and distant for a hospitality company. Hilton Worldwide is simple and gets the message across that Hilton Hotels are indeed located worldwide. Moving on.
Tags: Hotel Magazines / Four Seasons Hotels / Hotel Websites / → All Tags
The Four Seasons Magazine Finally Enters The 21st Century
If you’re looking for the Four Seasons lifestyle on a Fairfield Inn budget, you’ll be glad to hear this week’s news that the Four Seasons magazine is now online. Yep, this means you don’t have to fork out 400 bucks for a room at the Four Seasons just to read “articles covering unique takes on top destinations, the latest fashion must-haves, luminaries of the arts and culture and more.” You don’t even have to order a subscription to the quarterly print edition at $50 a year!
Tags: Westin Hotels / Hotel Websites / → All Tags
Westin Hotels Get a (Virtual) Renovation
If you're anything like us, you're fans of the Westin Heavenly Bed, and don't mind the Westin Heavenly Bath products either. There's something comfortable and unassuming about the Westin brand, even if it doesn't set your heart racing. Or, as the chain says on its website, Westin is "a haven of serenity" that is "welcoming yet never overwhelming." Next Monday, the brand re-launches Westin.com with those values in mind. But really? We're not sure anything was wrong with the old website.
Tags: Movenpick Hotels / Hotel Websites / → All Tags
Mövenpick Goes Mobile
Fans of Mövenpick Hotels should be happy this week: the Swiss-based hotel chain have just launched a new website which should make it quick and easy for potential guests to make bookings and get all the info they want from Mövenpick using their cell phone.
The newly optimized www.moevenpick-hotels.com is ready for perfect viewing whatever you're using – the geeky tech people that did it say the site is now ready to be viewed from 5,000 different mobile devices across the world, so if your phone doesn't bring this site up beautifully, you're pretty damn unlucky.
The site is available in both English and German, with photos of the various Mövenpick hotels and resorts across the world, and real-time booking (and even cancelling!) facilities. Probably we shouldn't be surprised to see a precision Swiss company like this one making sure they're on top of the technical stuff.
Tags: Hotel Websites / iPhone Apps / Choice Hotels / Wyndham Hotels / → All Tags
Like, Duh! Hotels Realize How Valuable iPhone Apps Can Be
From the tales of stuff-we-already-knew (but hotels didn't): potential guests who use iPhones are worth chasing. Of course they/we are! Chains like Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels are getting serious about mobile sites and iPhone apps so that future guests can get all the info they need while on the run, and it's all a whole lot more successful than they thought.
A Wyndham spokesperson said that potential customers accessing their mobile site "are converting at much higher rates than assumed" and the Choice people claim to have been the first brand with an iPhone app, and they're keen to keep doing more in this direction.
Tags: Hotel Websites / Family-Friendly Hotels / Hotel Services / Paris Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Plaza Athénée Gives Rich Kids Their Own Guide to Paris
Here’s a confession: we used to think that trips to great cultural centers would probably be lost on kiddies. What child, we reasoned, would be able to grasp le sheer greatness of the City of Light, for example?
Well we were wrong, because we hadn’t counted on the Plaza Athénée’s new kiddy-licious website, veryimportantchildren.com. Whether they’re tots or teenagers, the site will tell them what’s to see in Paris (not just the usual stuff either; it mentions temporary, time-specific things like exhibitions, too) as well as what’s going down in the hotel itself (things which it deems “hypra-cool”, which we might take as our word of the summer).
Of course, being the Plaza Athénée (rooms start at 595 euros, or $835, this summer), it’s aimed at very important, rich children. There’s even a section where you can upload your own pictures of your stay, to make a little rich kid community. Cute! But there’s nothing to stop the non-important and non-rich folk using the website to glean ideas. Just as long as it’s not the idea that they’ll be staying there on your next trip over.
Tags: Hotel Websites / GEM Hotels / NYC Hotels / → All Tags
GEM Hotels Gets Their Very Own Website
GEM Hotels — that fun little offshoot of Choice Hotels’ Ascend Collection, with three boutique NYC hotels — recently launched their very own brand platform, complete with a shiny new website. Who says we never bring you exciting news?
First, the website. Pervasive elevator music aside — with a different tune for each hotel, eep! — the site has clean design and is easy to navigate, which, really, is all that matters. Beyond the looping pillow fight on the home page, the overall aesthetic is a little generic though, which doesn’t bode well for its memorability, especially for a hotel that was apparently “born out of necessity in 2007,” according to the website, “to provide excellent hospitality service in an unpretentious, accessible and sustainable manner.”
But! Via the website we did learn that GEM Union Square is coming in 2011, which we will definitely be tracking. Also worth noting: GEM Hotels are incorporating a few unique brand hallmarks, in addition to their legendary amenities. We already told you they’re searching for local rockstars to showcase via lobby playlist, but they’re also taking their name quite seriously with the GEMstone program — a collection of small rocks each engraved with a “word reflective of the brand” (from “relax” to “GEMtastic”). Guests who want their sheets laundered can plop a GEMstone on their pillow instead of scratching a note on paper. A little forced, sure, but it’s still a nice touch.
Sizzling Summer rates are discounted 15 percent and start as low as $135.
Tags: Hotel Websites / Aloft Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Hotel Marketing / → All Tags
The New 'Aloft Experience' Site is Kind of Awesome
Aloft recently explanded their website, launching a totally new section called The Aloft Experience — and the most important thing we have to say here is this: the music on the site is stellar. There is a little music player rolling through a playlist that includes Duran Duran, Jem and Sarah Bareilles. And you know how much we love us some decent hotel website music.
The new "microsite" is pretty sweet; the official purpose of the new offshoot is:
It showcases a range of interactive features, including a guided insider’s tour of the hotel, maps and city guides for each location which engage visitors through a series of original, branded games that bring the Aloft Hotels experience to life.
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Thompson Hotels / Susur Lee / Hotel Websites / → All Tags
Thompson LES' Shang Gets a Fly New Website
We told you back in early March that the dudes behind Thompson Hotels had gotten together to form a restaurant group called Do Not Disturb, which is now managing the restaurant soon to be known as 'Zentan' inside DC's Donovan House (formerly known as 'Cha'), the food and nightlife venues at Thompson LES (Shang, Above Allen), as well as the restos in Gild Hall, the Hollywood Roosevelt and the upcoming Thompson Toronto.
Zentan inside Donovan House is set to open up on June 8th with Susur Lee's name on the place (as opposed to Todd English's, who was originally the face of Cha) — and Susur Lee's other Thompson restaurant, Shang, now is showing off a hot, hot new website. It's got menus, all the requisite look-at-our-celeb-chef promotional goodness, press clippings and a pretty decent image gallery. Was this the first order of business for the Do Not Disturb group?
Uh, maybe they could go do a bit of work on the Zentan website next. It's a little bit... naked.
Tags: Hotel Websites / Morgans Hotel Group / → All Tags
Morgans Continues Hating On the Recession With 'Recess Is On'
Yes, we already know Morgan's Hotel Group throws curse words at the recession. Like any hotel chain right now, they are likely not enjoying what's going on — people are not traveling so much or shelling out the big bucks as of late. They've joined every other hotel ever and have responded by offering deals, but they're taking it one step further and, uh, distracting you with artsy stuff.
They've just launched RecessIsOn (get it? Recession/Recess/It's on?) and the recession-hating tie-in is kind of confusing. It's a second website featuring "Recess Sessions," which are "a series of eight original music videos shot in cinéma vérité style." Specifically:
Each video is set in the rich environments of Morgans' hotels and includes three separate segments with a musical performance, interview and footage of the artists playing on property. All of the content is intimately shot, previously unreleased and available through www.recessison.com.
The whole thing is kinda-loosely connected to the recession (we're not so sure we're understanding the tie-in) — apparently, the vids are keeping with the company's defiance against the recession because they "celebrate the idea that you never know what is going on behind closed doors at Morgans' hotels and gives their guests permission to explore and to play again."
Eh, or with videos featuring artists like Au Revoir Simone at the Hudson and Miss Derringer at Mondrian LA, they give you something to look at and listen to when business at the ol' workplace is slow.
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