Aloft Hotels Launches Ground-Breaking Online Experience for the High-Tech, Gen Y Traveler. Aloft becomes the first hospitality brand to incorporate original gaming into its Web experience

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.® (NYSE:HOT) and its high-tech, style at a steal AloftSM Hotels brand, today announced the launch of the newly expanded Aloft Web site, www.alofthotels.com/explore , featuring a range of interactive features never before developed by a hospitality brand. The site includes a guided insider’s tour of the hotel, maps and city guides for each location and engages visitors through a series of original, branded games that bring the Aloft experience to life.

Mr. Giuseppe Luizi Bazzani is a notable hotelier, who has served as a General Manager in over a dozen 5-star hotels, including such global brands as the Waldorf Astoria – New York, Swiss hotels around the world, Hilton London, Sweden, Turkey, Tel Aviv and many more. Mr. Bazzani has also lectured in many universities and hotel schools around the world, including the Cornell University, during his 60-year long hospitality career. When he visited GATE College in March 2009 for his 6-week assignment by referral through a Swiss contact, he was in for a surprise! It was an ordinary Tuesday morning, until all of a sudden he saw the entire GATE College student community dressed in T-shirts, masks and gloves, and armed with brooms, bins and buckets, heading towards the street of Mandikhatar, instead of their classrooms for their regular classes, cooking, and serving.

Some more fond memories...and fresh Hotel Management Graduate news from Passugg! At the diploma ceremony of the SSTH Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality 97 hoteliers celebrated the awarded diploma on May 27th, 2009! The ceremony took place on the school campus in Passugg.

Online conversations regarding your hotel continually reinforce its online perception to your target audience. Therefore the importance of tactical social media and blogging activities cannot be ignored. Hotels are finding out the hard way that conversations about them are happening online and online communities can be breeding grounds for speculation and rumours. Using social media to manage this risk and to deliver positives to counteract any negatives can be more than just effective in terms of negating any bad press, but also to build your positive “brand noise” and create “brand buzz” around your hotel’s website.