Aloft Hotels
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| Franchise | |
| Industry | hospitality |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | W Hotels |
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Number of locations
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100 hotels |
|
Area served
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United States, Canada, Europe, Asia |
| Parent | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide |
| Website | www.alofthotels.com |
Aloft Hotels is a hotel chain based in North America, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (which was acquired by Marriott International in October 2016), although it is referred to as "a vision of W Hotels". The first hotel opened at the Trudeau International Airport in Montreal in 2008. Aloft Hotels have since opened across North America and internationally. Most Aloft hotels are located in city centers or in close proximity to airports.
The brand is most notable for its modern architecture design style. Another characteristic of Aloft hotels is the naming of basic hotel amenities. For example, in each hotel, the swimming pool is referred to as "splash".
Aloft Hotels was conceived in 2005 by Starwood Hotels. The hotel chain already had many brands, including Sheraton, Westin, and W Hotels, but was looking to expand into a market of more contemporary hotels, which would eventually become known as boutique hotels. To reflect its relationship with Starwood Hotels, the Aloft brand was dubbed as "A Vision of W Hotels". Starwood worked with the architectural company Rockwell Group and its founder David Rockwell to come up with the design.
To generate interest in the brand before its 2008 opening, Starwood launched a virtual tour of the hotels using Second Life, whose site allows visitors to move through a typical Aloft Hotel and explore its aspects in detail. Starwood monitored statistics from the site, gauged public reception based upon visitors' opinions, and incorporated this information into the design of future Aloft Hotels.
Aloft Hotels emphasize the local community, such as by highlighting local musicians at the w xyz bar, and holding Facebook contests to find the best local musicians.
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Wikipedia