Starwood Announces Promotions at Mexico Resorts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has created a promotion called “Sensational Savings” that offers free nights in resorts in Mexico. Starwood properties in destinations such as the Yucatan Peninsula and Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Punta Mita are now participating in the offer. To take advantage of this offer, just book a minimum of four nights at one of the resorts in Mexico and the fourth night is free. With a seven-night stay, the seventh night is also free. Participating hotels include Westin Cancun Resort & Spa, Westin Lagunamar Resort, Le Meridien Resort & Spa Cancun, Westin Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa, Sheraton Buganvillas Resort & Convention Center, Westin Los Cabos Resort & Spa, Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort Los Cabos, St. Regis Punta Mita Resort, and a choice of five 17th Century Haciendas in the Yucatan and Campeche. The Haciendas are members of The Luxury Collection. These discounts apply not only to rooms but also to food and beverages.


When booking four nights, guests receive $200 in credit for food and beverage consumption, and an upgrade in room category, subject to availability. With stays of seven nights or more, guests receive $300 worth of credit for food and beverages per room account, plus an upgrade in room category, subject to availability. The Sensational Savings promotion will be available at The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort with additional benefits. A four-night stay will receive $400 credit in food and beverage consumption, and a total of seven nights booked earns a credit of $700 in food and beverages. This offer is available until the end of the year, subject to availability. For reservations or more information, call toll free 866-782-9838

Four Points by Sheraton Debuts in Midtown-Times Square

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. introduced the Four Points by Sheraton brand in New York City’s Times Square. Owned by Times Square West, LLC, Four Points by Sheraton Midtown-Times Square occupies a prime location on 40th Street in the heart of the New York City’s Broadway theater district. The newly constructed, 244-room hotel is the brand’s third hotel to open in New York City and joins Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village and Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea. Four Points by Sheraton has stepped up its growth in New York City as part of the brand’s comprehensive global rejuvenation campaign. In the past five years, Starwood and its partners have invested more than $1 billion to reinvent Four Points by Sheraton resulting in a 70 percent turnover of the portfolio driven by major property renovations, conversions and new-build hotels. The brand also recently opened its first vacation resort hotel in Punta Gorda, Florida and launched its first prototype hotel in San Antonio, Texas. The hotel’s guest rooms all feature the Four Points by Sheraton Four Comfort Bed, free high-speed Internet access, as well as 32-inch, flat-screen televisions. For more information call 866-782-9838

Bellagio, MGM Grand, Skylofts Brands Planned for Dubai

MGM Mirage and Pearl Dubai said they plan to develop Bellagio, MGM Grand and Skylofts hotels, as well as branded residences at Dubai Pearl, the $4 billion luxury development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The hotels are expected to be operational in 2013. Pearl Dubai will own and finance a 250-room Bellagio hotel, a 350-room MGM Grand hotel and a 30-suite Skylofts hotel, while MGM Mirage Hospitality will manage and provide technical services for the three new ventures. The agreement includes the development of Bellagio-branded luxury residences, in addition featuring dining, entertainment, spa and convention facilities. The partnership between the two companies will see the Dubai Pearl project getting Dubai’s first hotel and residences brands under the MGM Mirage portfolio.


Located opposite the Palm Jumeirah Island in the heart of the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone, Dubai Pearl is planned as a landmark destination designed to offer spectacular views of the Arabian Gulf. It will offer a pedestrian friendly, 24-hour living city with a spectrum of commercial, retail, residential, hospitality and leisure components. Dubai Pearl will also have a 2,000-seat performing arts theater aimed at meeting the needs of Dubai’s growing cultural calendar and complementing the project’s entertainment offering.

Hotels placing room service menus online

Add the room service menu to the list of hotel items collecting dust. A growing number of hotels are using online menus, allowing guests to order via smartphones or laptops.

Online menus offer more detailed information about food choices, including photos and daily specials, and allow guests to bypass phone chats with kitchen attendants. For hotels, the new technology means freeing employees from the phones for other chores and creates opportunities for "upselling" with recommendations.

Generally, the system works like this: A guest uses Wi-Fi to download an Internet page that contains the hotel's online menu. Once the order is placed, the system directly bills the room or the credit card. Some hotels also allow housekeeping, valet and requests for services such as additional towels or wake-up calls to be ordered online.

Omni Hotels has been testing an online order application at Omni Mandalay in Irving, Texas, since last year. Developed by Vancouver, Wash.-based GBCblue, the system will be expanded to several other Omni properties in coming months. The company hopes to install it chain-wide by the end of the year, says Kerry Kennedy, Omni's director of e-commerce.

Starwood Hotels has approved GBCblue's technology for all of its hotels, says Joe Adkisson of GBCblue.

Among other hotels that offer a similar service: Hyatt Regency Monterey, Calif.; Grand Hyatt San Francisco; Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, Calif.; Westin Maui; and Westin-Kierland in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Omni and GBCblue are developing a mobile menu "app" — or a software application — for iPhone and Blackberry users that can be downloaded to the phone directly and bypass the Internet browser.

To encourage more online orders, Malibu Beach Inn distributes Apple's iTouch to customers if they don't have their own Internet devices. GBCblue is working with a hotel in Hawaii for a similar project to distribute iTouch to guests sitting poolside.

For now, online orders are used mostly for room service. Once Malibu Beach Inn started using online menus last year, it saw a 25% increase in room service orders in the first six months, says Matt Allard of service creator Runtriz. GBC says Omni Mandalay's orders have similarly risen.

Omni Mandalay also has noticed that guests spend more — by about $3 an order — when ordering online. Omni plans to add a function that will recommend accompaniments to go along with the item ordered.

"If someone ordered just steak, we can remind them of the drink," Kennedy says. "We can have it set up to recommend the right wine."

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