Got an AmEx Gold Card? Then you've also got a free dinner at any of four brands under the Starwood umbrella now.
Yesterday, Amex and Starwood announced a new program that gives a yummy perk to all Gold Card members: a $75 food and beverage credit. Score!
The conditions: you have to be (obviously) a Gold Card member, and you have to book a stay of two or more consecutive nights at one of the 500+ participating W Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.
The new delish benefit is offered through the Gold Card Destinations program, which already boasts a pretty long list of travel amenities with AmEx Gold Card travel partners - cool stuff like lift tickets at Ski.com destinations and access to tickets for Gold Card events.
So does this mean we have an excuse to demand that we get our drinks covered by the AmEx-toting dude we meet in the W bar next weekend? We haven't caught anything about alcohol being excluded from the deal, so we think yes.
More info on the AmEx/Starwood partnership can be found here.
According to a recent article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the St Regis Fort Lauderdale will no longer be a St Regis come August 11th! Yes, for those scratching your heads - this is the same St Regis that opened up to great fanfare just under 15 months ago in May of 2007.
What caused this mess? Well according to the Sun-Sentinel:
problems surfaced when there were major management changes at Starwood, creating a ripple effect at St. Regis.
Just in time for the 2008 Olympics, The St. Regis Beijing has reopened after dropping $27 million big ones into a seven and a half-month, top-to-bottom restoration and renovation of their hotel. From the official press release:
Overlooking the property's tranquil gardens, the upgraded guest rooms and suites feature extraordinary furnishing including cherry wood armoires, Chinese silk upholstery, fine European tableware, flat-panel LCD televisions and spacious work desks. In addition, WiFi service is available to all guests, throughout the hotel.
The St. Regis Beijing is located in the city's diplomatic district, near Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The hotel has one of the city's best Italian restaurant, Danieli's, as well as The St. Regis Spa & Club. Topping off the services, each guest will be able to take advantage of the St. Regis Butler Service.
Of course, you'll have to pay for that WiFi service. This is a St. Regis afterall. Nothing is for free.
We couldn't find anything open in the second week of August but if you are interested in visiting Beijing during the games, Starwood is directing guests to this site to leave their hotel stay requests.
Hotels within Starwood's Luxury Collection banner have always been the creme-de-la-creme of hotels; these are hotels that make the Sheraton & St Regis look like an EconoLodge. In other words, they are hotels that want to join with Starwood, yet still have their own highly respected reputation and don't want to put Westin on the side of their 100 year old limestone building.
This weekend, Starwood re-launched the Luxury Collection's website, giving the brand a new look and feel - replacing the old-fashioned look with a modern, sophisticated feel that still exudes luxury. They even fancied up the name a bit - by adding "Hotels & Resorts". In fact while viewing the site, we felt we should be wearing a suit and tie, smoking a pipe and petting a small dog.
Because Dubai clearly doesn't have enough luxurious, lavish hotel rooms, Starwood has announced plans to build a 220-room St. Regis slated to open in Dubai in 2012.
This comes hot on the heels of the unveiling of the completely over-the-top plans for the Trump Tower Dubai, and frankly we're happy to hear of something non-Aloft-related coming out of the big S-wood.
The St. Regis Dubai will be part of the mixed-use Starhill Towers & Gallery, a 1.6-million-sf project in the city's burgeoning Business Bay area.
Included in the hotel are three restaurants, two bars, a fitness center, a swimming pool, shops and 4,500 sf of meeting space. An 80-room portion of the hotel will be dubbed St. Regis Residences, featuring one-, two- and three-bedroom configurations.
Ed. Note: Yes, we know that W Hotels concierge service is called Whatever/Whenever, but we are trying to lighten up a Monday.
Today's USATODAY wrote about Starwood Hotels & Resort's new CEO, Frits Van Paasschen who likes to "break the ice" with journalists & developers by going on a brisk 5 mile run.
He did it a few weeks ago at the NYU Hospitality Conference, and earlier this year at another conference but was asked to slow down a bit because the hotel industry types apparently can't keep up with him.
When he was first hired last September, Frits was one of 60 candidates for the job, but according to Starwood's Chairman of the Board, Frits
stood out because of his intellectual firepower, success shaping global strategies for consumer products at Disney, Nike and Coors, his likable personality and the aggressive way he promised to tackle the job.
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.
Last summer, we checked up on the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa, a massive 19-acre condo-hotel development at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain (near Vail) slated to be completed "Summer 2008."
Well, we swung by the site to check on progress and, um, yeah. About that whole opening-this-summer thing? It's gonna be a stretch.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by Jenna
