HotelChatter

Aloft Hotels

Aloft Dulles-North Will Open in Time for Inauguration

September 30, 2008 at 10:37 AM | 2 Comments

Is it just us, or do Aloft hotels make anyone else reminisce about the old-school cartoon show "Animaniacs," with Pinky and the Brain on a persistent quest for world domination? The dialogue writes itself:

Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft: Gee Frits, what do you want to do tonight?
Frits van Paasschen, CEO of Starwood: The same thing we do every night--try to take over the world.

And in spite of a few documented setbacks, Aloft gets one step closer January 1. Aloft Dulles-North, located near Washington Dulles Airport some 30 miles from our fair nation's capital, has rescheduled its November opening for one (presumably) well-timed with inauguration mania.

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Hotel Blog Watch

Hotel Blog Watch :: Aloft Washington-Dulles North

July 14, 2008 at 10:35 AM | 5 Comments

With the Aloft hype machine in full-effect as Starwood begins to close in on world domination, it's refreshing to see an Aloft property that has taken things (albeit ever-so-slightly) into their own hands as far as making the hotel feel a bit less, well, corporate.

The Aloft Washington-Dulles Airport, which is slated to open in early November, has their own blog and, honestly, we're really happy it exists, if only because it doesn't look like it was created by the pink-loving, sometimes slang-abusing Starwood marketing squad.

While a good bit of the content on the blog is no more than copied-and-pasted press releases, some of the stuff is very honest-to-goodness, community-specific news and updates on the project's construction progress.

Our fave entries are the staff intros because they give the property an identity and the personal entries help to tone down the one-of-many feeling of the rapidly-multiplying brand. Also, fun fact: the biggest fish the GM ever caught was "a 4.5 feet long / 2 feet in girth Rockfish."