Dear W Fort Lauderdale. I really miss your pool.

Today was Career Day at Cornell.  Aside from climbing up the slope in the rain while wearing my Sunday best, I was really looking forward to networking with recruiters from Starwood, Kimpton, Marriott, Expedia, and a cool company called Nor1.

Now that my interview with Expedia is over and the networking is done (at least for today), I’m ready for a quick break to reminisce about a recent stay at the W Fort Lauderdale.  Today’s rain really made me miss those warm southern Floridian days.

If I could sum up the new W Fort Lauderdale in a few words, I would describe it as the ultimate bachelor beach pad.  Aside from the modern beach design and the primo oceanfront real estate, it’s got a knockout pool party scene with some of the hottest bodies in southern Florida.  The W Fort Lauderdale takes the pool party lifestyle to the 10th degree with a rooftop pool, a live music DJ crankin out jams, and a huge deck that overlooks the Atlantic.  If you enjoy people watching, this is your weekend scene.  If you really enjoy people watching, then ditch your lounge chair and make your way to the steps that cut through the pool into the lobby below.

No idea what I’m talking about?  Check out the pics below and pay attention to that glass structure in the middle of the pool
. . .

China loves Starwood! 50 properties and counting, SPG membership soars

Starwood's 50th property in China

Looks like China is showing much love to Starwood these days.  The company just opened its 50th property in China, the Sheraton Jinan Hotel, which boasts 410 guest rooms and five restaurants/lounges.  Where the hell is Jinan though?

In the past 10 months, Starwood has signed 18 new hotel deals, and that’s not even the end of the party.  The company expects to have 100 properties in China by 2012.  2010 will also see the first W Hotel in Shanghai!  It’s about damn time.

And to think in 1985 Starwood was the only international hotel chain in China with the historic Great Wall Beijing Sheraton.

The Chinese have totally bought into Starwood’s Preferred Guest Program as well.  Reports indicate that China is SPG’s biggest source of new members, with enrollment jumping 50% in 2009 over last year.  China has now become the fourth largest member base of active SPG members, behind only the US, Canada, and the UK.

Starwood CEO, Frits van Paasschen said, “In a few short years, China will be one of the world’s largest outbound tourism markets with the Chinese generating more than 100 million trips a year. And when the Chinese do travel, they are going to stay in the brands that they know from home, which will have a meaningful effect on our business globally and underscores why we are investing so heavily in this critical market now.”

From a Starwood press release:

China is currently home to the largest number of Starwood hotels outside of North America, and it has the largest pipeline of new hotels outside of the United States. So far this year, Starwood has opened three hotels in China: Sheraton Jinan Hotel, Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou-Dongpu and Sheraton Shunde Hotel. Through the remainder of the year, Starwood is expected to open four additional hotels: Le Meridien Qingdao, Le Meridien Chongqing-Nan’an, Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang and The Westin Tianjin.

Source: Conference and Incentive Travel

Starwood ready to conquer travel social media with new Twitter and Facebook tools

Came across the announcement of SPG’s newest strategy to connect with its frequent travelers via social media.  The news came out this morning while I was lounging poolside at the W Fort Lauderdale, so apologies for not having this posted sooner.  I know many of you blog readers are into this kind of thing.

So SPG has launched a website with the aim of publicizing of all its social media channels.  This includes Starwood’s traditional thelobby.com blog, Twitter page, and Facebook fan page.  It also includes two nice enhancements related to Twitter and Facebook . . .

Help SPG Insider out. Contribute!

1) There’s the new SPG Insider which is a new map-based travel suggestions database powered by tweets.  In other words, you can use a mobile Twitter application to tweet tips on things like restaurants and bars in the city/town you’re visiting.  Then SPG does some magic trick and uploads your tweet tip on a shared Google map based on your GPS location.   The goal is to create a searchable world map that has a huge list of tips tweeted by SPG members.  Will this work?  Let’s hope this doesn’t fizzle and die out with the SPG community like it has with some other similar sites.  I also did a search for coffee/cafe tips for San Francisco and no results turned up.  How can that be!?  I guess it’s still in its infancy.  See instructions on how to tweet your recommendations on the right, and I included a screenshot of the map output below . . .

2) Then there’s the new SPG TripShare Facebook app that lets you share trip photos directly from your Facebook accounts.  You have to have the photos previously uploaded on your profile page.  Basically the app lets you choose up to five photos from a trip that’s already posted in a photo album on your Facebook profile.  Then you can tag them however you want.  The end result is a community of SPG members browsing photos of trips that may or may not be (but most likely will be) Starwood Hotels and destinations.  I think this will be the more entertaining of the two new social media functions, but I wonder how inappropriate or irrelevant photos will be weeded out.  I just did an upload of a recent trip to Waikiki with my five fave photos.  See the second screenshot below . . .

The new SPG Twitter function - GPS based tweets re: travel suggestions

The new SPG TripShare Facebook App - Share your fave five photos!

Here's all of Starwood's social media channels

Some quick remarks on hotel outlook from Starwood CEO and CFO

Starwood’s CEO, Frits van Paasschen, and Starwood CFO, Vasant Prabhu, both had some remarkable things to say in two recent interviews.  In a session with Bloomberg, Frits van Paasschen suggested emergence from the US recession may be signified by an increased in demand for the New York City hotel market.

“New York is a good leading indicator because it’s such a crossroad of so many places,” Van Paasschen said in the interview.  “Occupancy is starting to come back, yes, at low rates, but if this recovery looks like a normal recovery we would see in a couple of quarters rates come back as well.  I am just not sure if this is a normal recovery.”  Frits also said that Starwood’s luxury brands have picked up pace in markets such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East excluding Dubai.

As much as I enjoyed taking advantage of the low rates at NYC hotels this summer, I’ve noticed they are starting to creep back up again.  It’s not too clear whether it’s due to high season or if there really is a resurgence in demand.  I’m hoping the hotel market, along with the job market, picks up for 2010 so more companies start hiring again.

Starwood CFO, Vasant Prabhu, offered his opinion in a separate presentation.  ”The next six weeks are very critical in my point of view.  It is the first indicator of what next year’s trends look like.”  Now that the summer travel season is wrapped up, Prabhu believes the next six weeks are a test of how business travel demand will shape up in 2010.

The Bloomberg article also highlighted that Starwood reduced its corporate workforce by 30% in the past two years in response to the economic downturn and to boost earnings.

Sheraton Manhattan at Times Square, a 665-room convention and business traveler property in NYC

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters