Aloft to debut in London, UK 1 OCT 2011 [Pre-opening discussion]
 

Moderator Note: This hotel has now opened. The hotel master thread can be found here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html
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Starwood's Aloft brand to debut in London

Great news to have another property in London^

I just looked up the location of the Excel conference center.

Royal Victoria Dock
1 Western Gateway, London E16 1XL, United Kingdom

It appears to be quite a ways east, on the north side of the Thames, but well beyond where Greenwich is on the south. It's quite close to London City Airport.

aloft coming to London UK
 

Quick summation for those that don't want to read...... 252 rooms, opening late 2011, Docklands area.

Here's a link to the article with all the details:

http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/ne...n-excel-hotel/

OOpps! How did I miss the other post. Sorry!

Direct access to the DLR will be nice!

Eh, would rather see Starwood concentrate on full-service properties near the heart of everything, similar to the W that's going in.

Le Meridien is beefing up it's act with a renovation, which I think is a great move. The Park Tower continues to be a solid property, albeit frustrating on the upgrade front to Platinums.

Outside of that with the Sheraton Belgravia walking away from Starwood, and the Park Lane being an abysmal dump, there really aren't enough Starwood options considering the size and importance of London. Really wish they could get the Lanesborough to join SPG as a true luxury collection property (sorry Park Tower, but in my mind you really don't cut it as a luxury collection property) as it would be an excellent addition.

Indeed. Probably not targeted to the tourist/leisure crowd that would prefer something central or west end....yet likely with an eye toward the business crowd that's all abuzz on the current redevelopments going on at Excel, proximity to the 2012 games--ergo, proximity to the (hopeful/alleged-) regeneration in that area following the games, business development in east london in general.

Altho I suppose for the tourist/leisure crowd that's already shlepping an hour on the Picadilly line to get into town from Heathrow, it's not that much farther. :)
Decent access to DLR, Jubilee line, Thames boats, (which take oyster cards now), etc.

Aloft London ExCel - Opening October 2011
 

The Aloft London ExCel has made it on to the SPG site now as a property, so I thought it might be worth setting up a master thread for the property if the moderators don't mind.

No details yet on what category it will open at and they are not yet taking reservations, but it is positive that they are planning to get this opened later this year rather than 2012 as previously suggested.

More details can be found here.

Posted this more then half a year ago already. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...uk-2012-a.html

Indeed, and I saw that thread before I posted this as a potential master thread. Now that it is showing up on SPG.com, it is worth having something a bit more up to date to commence as the master thread.

If the mods prefer to merge that in to the old thread then that is absolutely fine. Either way, there is an update and some new information.

A clarification
 

Actually, that's not quite the way we set up Master Threads in the SPG forum.

Once a hotel opens, and the first substantive review posts have been made, we convert those posts into the Master Thread and include a link in the FAQ/Master Thread Links thread.

This approach allows us to keep pre-opening discussion contained in one thread, and the meaty property experience-oriented content in the Master Thread. We've found that the majority of pre-opening discussion becomes irrelevant as soon as the property opens and hate to have all that irrelevant discussion as the initial content in a new Master Thread. This keeps the new thread informative, clean and relevant.

-AZ
Moderator

Thanks for the clarification AZ ^ and thanks for merging.

Another update on this property after speaking with the team at the Park Lane yesterday. It looks like pricing should be on the SPG site by around the end of March or early April.

Good news. Location is ok. Focus is on business travellers for Canary Wharf/LCY. It is good to see that the UK is getting more and more attention from Starwood. There are still many opportunities for Starwood.

It is about time though that Starwood realised that there is more to the UK than London. Where are the other other Starwood properties in the UK? Oh that's right 2 properties in Scotland (one of which may soon be leaving). Fabulous geographical coverage :rolleyes:

That said this will be an interesting addition to East London. Not terribly practical for my needs given that I live up the road but I may try a weekend night just to see what it is like.

Well there were properties due to open in Manchester and Birmingham. Manchester got shelved due to the property developer pulling out of the project due to the economic situation.

The Westin Birmingham seemed to be progressing slowly, but with an opening date of 2012, but that too seems to have fallen by the wayside.

The UK is poorly represented by Starwood, but I think quite a few other European countries could argue the same as well.

Ugh......Aloft, who thought of this concept? Have not been impressed with my stays there. Trying too hard to be young and hip.