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Posts with tag westin

Westin Versara


Sales are well underway at the Westin Verasa in Napa. This project is the fifth project between Starwood hotel group and Intrawest. The Westin Verasa Napa Residences are 160 whole ownership units ranging from studios to two-bedroom suites and owners are each entitled to stay at the hotel up to 29 days a year. The hotel amenities include a pool and spa that overlook the Napa river, a Reebok gym, bocce ball courts, a bar, and a signature restaurant. The suites range in price from approximately $500,000 to over $1.3 million per room. Vacationers can book nightly accommodations when the resort opens next year, no word on the rates yet. The resort is ideally located for wine country exploration, it is adjacent to Copia, the center for food and wine and the Oxbow Public Market, a large market featuring local vendors and organic farm stands will be right next door.

Breakfast of Champions? The $1,000 Bagel


Truffles and gold: It must be time for breakfast. Frank Tujague of The Westin New York hotel at Times Square has created the $1,000 bagel. The bagel is topped with white truffle cream cheese and goji berry-infused Riesling jelly with gold leaves. The chef created the unique treat to help raise funds for the Les Amis d'Escoffier Scholarship, which gives scholarships to cooking students. The $1,000 bagel is only available until December 14 and has to be ordered 24 hours in advance.

Westin Hotels Put SuperFoods On The Menu

The Westin hotels have done a lot to promote the relaxing and healthful aspects of their hotels by creating special aromatherapy scents, workout rooms and special suites devoted to relaxation. Now they are creating SuperFoods focused menus for their guests. They have partnered up with the publishers of the SuperFoodsRx books to create a diet rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients. Offerings include banana oatmeal brulé, green-tea-infused salmon and molten dark chocolate cake. They key to the SuperFoodsRx philosophy is combining certain foods for maximum nutrition. The initiative is currently rolling out in 25 Westin hotels in the U.S. and Canada and will go global in 2008.

Westin Opens In Minneapolis

Minneapolis is becoming one hot city with a variety of new condo developments planned. Minneapolis takes another big step toward big city land with the opening of their very own Westin. The Westin Minneapolis has opened in the historic Farmers & Mechanics Bank Building in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. The building has a distinctive 34-foot vaulted entryway and lobby and a restored marble staircase. There are 214 guestrooms including a penthouse suite with an outdoor patio and a Bankers Boardroom with floor to ceiling windows. The Bank restaurant has a vaulted ceiling and serves contemporary cuisine. Rates start around $220.

High-priced Condos A Hot Seller in Detroit

Sure, luxury condos have hit trouble in Miami and Las Vegas but apparently the luxury condo business is thriving in Detroit. The Detroit Free Press reports on the sales of the new Westin condo residences at the Book-Cadillac Hotel. The building held their first invite-only sales event this week and already 40 of the condos were snapped up. Prices range from $280,000 to $1.5 million. People will move in in mid 2008 when the hotel reopens as the Westin Book-Cadillac with 455 hotel rooms and 67 condos. The initial public offering of the condos will be in December if there are any left by then.

Starwood Hotels Want You To Stay A Long, Long Time

Last year, Starwood Hotels launched "aloft," their new hotel brand. Now they have a new brand, Project ESW. Project ESW will be an extended stay version of the Westin Hotel and will include Westin features like the Heavenly Bed and the Westin Workout rooms. The hotels will be contemporary new builds with studios and one-bedroom suites. The kitchens will have stainless steel appliances and there will be gourmet pantries stocked with food and wine. Common areas include large lobbies, cafe areas, terraces and pools. Starwood plans 150 markets for Project ESW and the first one will open in Lexington, Massachusetts in late 2007.

More Smelly Hotels

We first saw this at the Westin with the white tea scent that many of you found so beguiling. Now other hotels are following suit with their own signature scents. UPI reports that the Sheraton has new  fig, bergamot, jasmine and freesia scent and that their Four Points hotels use apple cinnamon for a homey approach. The Omni chain has chosen the clean scent of lemongrass and green tea for their lobbies. The scent is just part of Omni's new Sensation offerings which include the Sensation Bar, a minbar that includes a moleskine notebook, deck of cards, CD, mojito jelly beans, pomegranate lip balm and a lavender pillow mist.

Westin's Latest Sense Offering Will Be Music

First, there was the scent, that pervasive white tea scent strip wafting out of magazines to promote Westin Hotels. Now, get ready for the sound. Westin has partnered up with eMusic.com to create a "digital music offering" that will be played in lobbies and offered as part of the in-room entertainment. The music is described as being global contemporary with an "ambient, melodic, rhythmic and energizing feel." Luckily magazines don't have audio chips so you won't be subjected to this unless you go to the Westin Hotels. It makes me wonder which sense they will tackle next.

Will A Scent Make You Choose A Hotel?

Scent strips in magazines are nothing new but a scent strip for a hotel? I was reading my New Yorker this morning when I came across the Westin White Tea scent ad. The ads only say "White tea. The calming new scent of Westin." Curious, I opened the strip. In comparison to other scents that come billowing out of those tiny flaps of paper, this one is mild, more like laundry detergent than white tea. According to Brandweek, the ads will pop up in The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Real Simple and Gourmet. It's an interesting move away from ads that usually focus on what the hotel looks like rather than what it smells like but I'm not sure that the pallid white tea scent is memorable enough to haunt people into choosing a Westin hotel.

Valentine's Day in Bangkok?

Continuing our coverage of Valentine-themed getaways we take you to exotic Bangkok. The Vareena Spa in the Westin Grande Sukhumvit hotel offers the Romeo & Juliet package through the month of February. The package takes place in the Sky View Suite and includes a 30 minute soak in a Jacuzzi pool infused with a milk bath, followed by a body scrub and an hour-long aromatherapy massage. The experience ends with two glasses of red wine.

[via e-travel blackboard]

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