Word: brandes
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...hoteliers such as Starwood's Brian McGuinness are on to you. Pulling up to a warehouse in an anonymous Hawthorne, N.Y., industrial park, McGuinness, head of Starwood's new line of hotels, Aloft, is eager to show off the full-scale model of the group's newest brand, a 136-room hotel with an average rate of $150 per night. Leading the way, McGuinness stops before a brightly lit entrance. A waterfall cascades down a wall, replete with the soothing sounds of a babbling brook, "to wash away troubles," he explains as he passes through the second set of doors...
NYLO, a partnership between five executives at other brands, including W, and funded in part by Lehman Brothers' private-equity arm, has latched onto the same multiuse lobby, designed to encourage guests to socialize and kitted out with cool features like wi-fi, chairs that hang from the ceiling and a Nintendo Wii. Offering 135-to-200-room hotels that cost an average of $120 to $200 per night and an upcoming brand, XP, at the $95-to-$110-per-night level, NYLO opened its first hotel in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, and expects 50 more to open...
...wall in Nashville and a dog named Indie residing in the Atlanta hotel. Indie is hosting canine cocktail parties this summer. "We've got the element of surprise of a boutique," says Jim Anhut, head of franchise development at InterContinental Hotels, "with the conveniences of a big brand...
...million for a developer to build, not including land, which could be a little higher than the cost of a Marriott Courtyard or Hilton Garden Inn, Woronka estimates. The key difference for developers may be that being new, Aloft has more wow factor. "You can renovate the older brands all you want," says Woronka, "but Aloft has a different feel." And that's good news for Starwood, which until now has not had a hotel brand in this segment, accounting for 11% of the hotel industry's revenue...
...Western multinationals have been trying for years, with mixed success, to stamp out such scenes. In the 1990s, a series of scandals showed the damage that could be wrought if a brand was linked to shoddy labor practices overseas. For example, in 1996, it was alleged that a Wal-Mart clothes label endorsed by American TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford had been produced using child labor in Honduran sweatshops. Gifford sobbed on air, saying she hadn't been aware of conditions at the factory. For corporations and consumers alike, it brought home the realization that globalized production comes...