All Entries Tagged With: "Starwood"
LUXGetaway Announces Top 10 Hottest Luxury Travel Brands for 2012
Our panel of travel experts has chosen the top luxury travel brands of 2012 within each respective category. We call this list the LUXList. And our winners are…
The 2012 LUXList
1. Domestic Airline: Virgin America
Virgin America’s inflight experience continues to be unparalleled by the competition.
2. International Airline: United Airlines
The merger with Continental Airlines is complete, and now provides one of the most complete global route networks in the world.
3. Hotel Company: Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood has had strong growth in new and existing markets within 2011, and continues in 2012 with its luxury brands including St. Regis, W Hotels, Le Méridien, Westin, and the properties within The Luxury Collection.
4. Rental Car Company: Hertz
In a industry with lots of choice, and highly drive by price Hertz themselves with it’s customer service and Hertz #1 Club rewards program.
5. Luxury Travel Reward Card: Platinum Card® from American Express
Lots of travel reward cards promise exclusive access, but the Platinum Card® from American Express delivers allowing you to bypass arrival lines at most U.S. airports when returning from intentional travel, and free access for 3 at airport lounges around the world.
6. Fractional Ownership Network: Timbers Resorts
Timbers Resorts now has 12 properties in their collection luxury boutique resorts. Each one uniquely positioned and engrained within the culture and community of its destination.
7. Vacation Club: Exclusive Resorts
The 10-year-old vacation club has reinvented how luxury travelers view vacation home ownership. Members have access to properties in 40 of the most desired luxury destinations throughout the world.
8. Luggage: Tumi
Tumi continues to design the world’s most attractive and practical luggage for frequent travelers.
9. Travel Accessories: Bose
Bose’s recent additions of their SoundLink wireless mobile speaker & OE2 headphones make Bose an even better companion while traveling.
10. Rookie of the Year: Inspirato
Inspirato, the new travel club already has an impressive 40 destinations within its portfolio. In their first year they have become the fastest growing club in the world.
St. Regis Announces Partnership with Bentley Motors
St. Regis, one of the premier names in the Starwood Hotels & Resorts family has announced a new partnership with luxury auto maker Bentley Motors. The partnership will also include hotel properties that are part of Starwood’s The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts division.
According to the announcement the hotels will be using Bentley vehicles both for house fleets and special driving programs aimed at residents and hotel guests. Bentley represents the ultimate in luxury vehicles combining unparalleled style and quality, making their cars the perfect match for the unrivalled luxury found at St. Regis and The Luxury Collection.
St. Regis Hotels & Resorts Continues Global Growth with Debut of St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort & Residences
Miami Beach is a vibrant destination full of energy and excitement that attracts international travellers from all over the world. Now those travellers have a new destination in the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort & Residences. Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced the grand opening of the world-class resort on January 20, making note of the fact that its opening marks a tripling of the global St. Regis portfolio over the last five years.
At the heart of the resort is a culture of art, design, and world-class fashion. Throughout the property guests will be treated to splendid art works from Santiago Rubino, Candida Hofer, and Sawada Hirotoshi. Rubino, a Miami Beach native, was commissioned to create a mural, which stands as the centrepiece of the hotel’s bar and lounge. The hotel’s interior design, which is largely the work of world-class design firm Yabu Pushelberg, makes use of Movinque wood from West Africa, Chinese God Flower Stone, and plenty of granite from Starwood’s private quarry.
The property offers 245 private residences as well as a resort boasting 243 luxurious guest rooms and suites. Both the residences and guest rooms come with breathtaking ocean views, spacious balconies, and the signature St. Regis Butler service. The property consists of three 27-story towers, with floor to ceiling glass, overlooking the ocean and the sprawling white sand beaches of Miami.
New Program Changes to Starwood Preferred Guest Program
Starwood Hotels & Resorts, one of the best-known names in 5-star hotels and travel, is about to turn the luxury travel world on its head. Looking to cater to a small but distinct group of travellers responsible for driving nearly one-third of the company’s profits, Starwood has developed an exclusive loyalty program they call Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). The program offers unique benefits to what Starwood refers to as “mega travellers”; a group of sophisticated and prolific travellers who long ago were disillusioned by standard perks and points reward programs.
In order to reward this loyal group with an equally loyal resorts program, the hotel chain embarked on three-year pilot project designed to quietly discover what the world’s elite travellers desired in a loyalty program. The result is nothing less than impressive, beginning with the industry’s first 24-hour check-in option. With Your24 check-in, members can choose their own custom check-in and check-out times to meet their schedules. For example, guests who check in at 8 PM don’t need to check out until 8 PM on the departure date. Gone are the industry standard 11 AM check-outs and 3 PM check-ins.
W Hotels Paris – Sneak Peek
February 14, 2012 will mark the start of a new era in Paris, France. That’s because W Hotels makes its debut on that day with a new property set directly across the street from the historic Opéra Garnier theatre and opera house. The new Starwood hotel aims to create a fusion of the quintessential Parisian neighborhood with the dynamic atmosphere of New York City’s cultural district.
W Paris – Opéra is being designed in a partnership between Rockwell Group Europe and W Global Brand Design. It will take full advantage of the historic nature of the building to create an atmosphere of sophistication, which plays off of the designation of Paris as the City of Lights. At the centre of the design is a spectacular backlit wall that undulates throughout the core of the building with displays of The Spark; digital patterns creating abstract images that continuously change.
The St. Regis Brings it’s Style of Luxury to Florence
The beautiful city of Florence recaptures a bit of former glory in the Starwood Hotels & Resorts restoration of one of its most historic and grand buildings. Starwood has just completed a 10-month renovation of the former Grand Hotel Florence, which they previously operated under their The Luxury Collection brand. With the renovation complete the new property is now known as the St. Regis Florence.
The St. Regis Florence occupies what was once the first luxury hotel in the city designed in 1432 by architect Filippo Brunelleschi. Starwood has returned the building to its former glory careful to preserve both the heritage and historical significance of the structure. The renovation is part of a $100 million effort by Starwood to renovate their most desirable properties across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The St. Regis Florence is a truly Italian hotel featuring 81 rooms, 19 suites, and a special designer suite from Bottega Veneta. All guest rooms feature luxury appointments, custom furniture, gloriously beautiful paintings, frescoes, and chandeliers, and unique names of noted Italian artists and nobility. Furthermore, each room is decorated with sophistication and elegance, in one of three color themes: Florentine, Medici, and Renaissance. As for the property’s public spaces, guests will appreciate fine antiques and handmade engravings scattered throughout the hotel.
Bora Bora: Visiting Paradise at The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort
The St. Regis brand is well known around the world for their exquisite service. The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort, a Starwood category 7 hotel, is no exception. Set in the tropical paradise that is French Polynesia, it all begins with your arrival.
Upon arriving at the small, open-air Bora Bora Airport you will be met by a courteous and attentive greeter from St. Regis who will welcome you with a smile and conduct you to your boat transfer. From there you’ll enjoy a mesmerizing boat ride across crystal blue waters to The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort. Along the way you will be awestruck by the scenery surrounding you; it’s the only place in the world that looks better in person than on a postcard.
St. Regis New York – The Dior Suite
The St. Regis New York hotel is proud to announce the availability of their new Dior Suite in collaboration with the famed Parisian fashion house. This is the hotel chain’s a second joint effort with Dior, this time in a 1700-square feet space of decadent luxury. And just like the Tiffany Suite, the Dior was designed to the highest standards the St. Regis brand is known for.
The Dior is normally a one bedroom suite with views of 5th Avenue, Central Park, and 55th St. However; it can easily be converted to a two-bedroom suite. It’s been painted almost entirely in the St. Regis signature colour known as “whispering gray”, with the finest luxury appointments included.
Starwood’s Le Méridien Launch New Lobby Design
Starwood Hotels and Resorts continue their ongoing project to redesign their hotel lobbies; this time with an announcement that its Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts has introduced the new Le Méridien Hub. The new design is intended to spark interaction between hotel guests centred on the topics of art and culture.
According to Starwood, the new hotel lobby at Le Méridien Barcelona redefines the social experience from the moment guests arrive. A combination of select artwork, casual furniture, and the aroma of the coffee bar are all intended to set the mood for conversation, debate, and other forms of social interaction.
The Hub’s design is the brainchild of a group of artistic and cultural innovators, hand-picked by Le Méridien Cultural Curator Jerome Sans, and named LM100. Together this group of brought to fruition their combined expertise in a variety of artistic areas to create a new lobby experience divided into three zones: the Arrival Experience, the Interaction Zone, and the Latitude Bar. All three are designed specifically to encourage a certain thinking and attitude in the minds of guests.
Welcome to the New Tiffany’s Suite at St. Regis New York
Two of New York’s most famous luxury landmarks have joined together to open a brand-new opportunity of luxury. Manhattan’s historic 5th Ave. is home to the St. Regis hotel and Tiffany & Co., and now the new Tiffany Suite at St. Regis as well. With both companies being classic New York institutions in their own right, there’s no other place on earth to combine both into a one-of-a-kind suite experience.
The hotel itself was built in 1904 as one of New York’s finest of the day. That reputation continues to live on not only in the St. Regis reputation for elegance and customer service, but also in the graceful and grandiose architecture. Beautiful carved crown moldings, elegant chandeliers, and a liberal, but tasteful, use of marble lets guests know they’ve entered a special place. Combined with the Tiffany & Co. reputation for providing the world’s finest jewelry and accessories to the most discriminating buyers, the historic hotel building provides the perfect atmosphere.
