Starwood to open seven hotels in NYC this year

by Melanie Nayer on

New York City is getting a few new addresses.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced its plans to open seven more hotels in New York City, upping the hotel’s portfolio by 50 percent in the Big Apple. Starwood currently operates 12 hotels in New York City across six of its nine brands, and expects to have 18 properties open in the city by year’s end, including the local debut of the Aloft and Element brands.

From Starwood:

“While nearly 80% of our future hotel pipeline is outside of the United States, we have more hotels in New York City than any city in the world and we will open more hotels right here in our backyard than anywhere else, which speaks to New York’s enduring stature as the most global gateway city in the world,” says Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen.

Coming soon: Aloft hotels in Harlem and Brooklyn and Starwood’s first Element hotel in Times Square.

In addition to the new brands, Starwood’s Sheraton hotels is making a splash in the big city. Of the seven hotels opening, Sheraton will debut two New York hotels including the Sheraton Brooklyn New York Hotel the Sheraton Tribeca New York Hotel. Starwood’s most popular brand, the W, continues to operate four hotels in NYC including its landmark W New York and W New York-Times Square.

King bed comes with wheels at some hotels

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hotels naturally have trouble going green. Think about the really granular details of how they operate; there’s a lot that you might miss. How often do you see a bar of soap you used once replaced with a new one? Rolls of toilet paper are swapped when only a fraction is used. You have the option to use sheets or towels more than once, but the choice is yours … and how often to you choose to shower green? Nonetheless, some properties are making progress.

Several hotels are now offering two wheels instead of four. The Bowery Hotel in New York, Gansevoort South in Miami, James Chicago and Element in Lexington, MA have picked up stylish bicycles to entice guests to pedal rather than drive. Bikes from Jamis and Trek are included in this fusion of social responsibility and conspicuous luxury. Gansevoort, committed to matching the bikes’ aesthetic with that of its Miami backdrop, has opted for bikes from Puma-that glow in the dark.

Of course, the biggest problem that environmentally-friendly programs face is behavior. Hotels are loathe to force guests to change their behavior. And, who can blame them? No company wants to roll the dice on customers’ willingness to adapt. So far, the results seem positive. Element has had to order another nine Trek hybrids.

The jury’s still out, but let’s all cast a vote for pushing pedals.