Characterised by floor-to-ceiling windows, polished chrome columns, and suspended lighting, colour i

Since Sleeper s stay at Aloft Abu Dhabi earlier this year, Starwood cheap car rental in hawaii s moderately priced lifestyle brand has announced new properties on a seemingly cheap car rental in hawaii weekly cheap car rental in hawaii basis. Stateside, hotels have opened in North Carolina, Virginia cheap car rental in hawaii and Oklahoma. Beyond, expansion plans have been announced for key global markets such as London, New York, and Guangzhou. And furthermore, the brand is set to make its European debut with the arrival of Aloft Brussels Schuman, in September. With forty hotels open in the 18 months since Aloft first arrived on the scene, and ten more coming on line in 2010, it is said to be the fastest brand debut in history. Aloft Abu Dhabi was the first Aloft to open in the Middle East, and only the second outside of North America. The initial concept was designed by Rockwell Group as an urban-chic environment with a mixture of bright, neutral, industrial, hi-tech, and playful colours and features . In creating a designer product with a focus on accessible technology, comfort, and convenience, the brand s target market is the forward-thinking business traveller. Typical features include re:mix, a communal lobby area that encourages social interplay, a re:fuel snack bar, re:charge gym, and an anything/anytime philosophy modelled after the W signature Whatever/Whenever. However being an American brand exporting to the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East, tweaking was inevitably required. Architects for the project, UK-based RMJM, were commissioned by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) to masterplan the entire exhibition centre and adjacent land that, when complete, will house 740,000m2 of hotels, commercial, residential and mixed-use projects. Aloft has the advantage of being the only hotel attached to the exhibition centre the largest venue in the Middle East and so had to be large enough to accommodate some of the 1.8 million annual visitors. At 408 guestrooms it is in fact the largest hotel in the Aloft portfolio with most hovering around the 145 mark. RMJM, led by Project Director Yves Queromain, devised a curved fa ade clad in glass with coloured linear light sources inspired by the notion of travel. The vivid colours are carried cheap car rental in hawaii through to the interiors where design practice RPW implemented the brand standards, in some cases adapting them for the Middle East market. RPW s brief was to take the Aloft brand concept design and make it work in Abu Dhabi, explains Managing Director cheap car rental in hawaii Jan Wilson, This presented us with all sorts of challenges ranging from guestroom size to the range of facilities offered in the public areas, specifically regarding food and beverage. As a result, a number of off-concept F B facilities were created. The restaurant Dine was a new concept cheap car rental in hawaii developed specifically for this hotel and designed to run in parallel with the standard offerings, says Wilson.
Characterised by floor-to-ceiling windows, polished chrome columns, cheap car rental in hawaii and suspended lighting, colour is injected through ceiling detail, and lime green and orange table settings. Other areas designed from scratch were the rooftop outdoor pool area Mai Caf , the indoor outdoor bar Relax@12, and the Splash Garden which was developed as an outdoor venue, cheap car rental in hawaii comments Wilson. Each area was designed to address the enormous potential external market made up of visitors to the adjacent exhibition centre, and locals who are more comfortable with dining in hotels than restaurants.
The main hub of the hotel is centred around the open plan lobby area. In a departure from the traditional cheap car rental in hawaii check-in, guests are met by staff or talents as they are known with a chirpy Aloha! Alternatively, self check-in through high-tech kiosks allows for personal selection cheap car rental in hawaii of floor and guestroom, much like selecting seats on an aircraft. A reinvention of the hotel lobby, re:mix is a flexible space that lends itself to both daytime and evening socialising. It features a sunken living room with two-sided glass fireplace, a customised pool table, rocking chairs, and communal table to encourage interaction between guests. The space incorporates industrial design elements such as exposed ductwork, polished concrete floors, and a bar top of crushed glass lit by coloured LCD lights. The w xyz bar, a brand standard, again features Aloft s typical pink, lime and turquoise colour palette reflected in the fittings and furnishings. The re:fuel snack bar is also provided as standard but in order to appeal more to the Middle Eastern client, a delivery service is offered. Additional services such as this mean that Aloft Abu Dhabi has a significantly higher staff to guest ratio than other hotels in the portfolio. The loft-style guestrooms are brand standard with fine-tuning undertaken by RPW. Measuring between 32m2 and 52m2, each offers a bright, airy environment with oversized windows, signature beds, and walk-in showers. A multi-functional headboard serves as a wall partition, built-in cheap car rental in hawaii storage space, cheap car rental in hawaii nightstand, and artwork display. Unlike the explosion of colour in the public areas, the guestroom palette is more subtle with touches of blue and purple through the upholstery. Setting the guestrooms cheap car rental in hawaii apart from others in the region is the technology offering. Each room is an all-in-one high-tech office and entertainment centre, with free Wi-Fi and plug play, and a one-stop connectivity station that recharges gadgets and links to the 42-inch LCD TV for optimal sound and viewing. Owners of Aloft Abu Dhabi are now set to bring Starwood s brand to the UK, as announced in the July / August 2010 issue of Sleeper. Having invested $261.36 million to acquire ExCeL London, the UK capital s largest exhibition centre, ADNEC will unveil a 252-bed Aloft hotel designed by Jestico + Whiles in 2012.