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Friday, August 04, 2006

Starwood Previews New Hotel Brand in Second Life

This is just a great idea. Next month Starwood Hotels is going to preview a new hotel brand called Aloft inside the Second Life virtual world. The physical hotels will open to the public in 2008. They have launched a blog that shows how the virtual hotel is being created.

Earlier this week there was some good feedback on the video interview I gave to Beet.tv about Second Life. I talked about the virtual world as a place where people go to escape, but there's more. Second Life is about realism too. Thanks to Clickable Culture for teaching this to me. You're dead on and that's why I like this program.

Starwood Hotels is adding a dose of realism to the virtual world. But they're doing more. They are giving people a chance to experience something that doesn't exist in the physical world yet. This adds tremendous value to the experience. My only advice to them is to use it as a simulation exercise to get feedback from the Second Life community that makes the real hotels better when they launch in 2008.

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Starwood Previews New Hotel Brand in Second Life:

» A new spin on try before you buy! from Jaffe Juice
Starwood is in the process of launching a new brand: Aloft, which will be a more accessible version of the W (trendy, sociable, wired, affordable) There's a blog to wet your appetites, but what really caught my eye is the [Read More]

» Starwood Hotels To Open Second Life Accomodations from Clickable Culture
Steve Rubel tipped me off to Starwood Hotels and its entry into the virtual world space. Starwood will open a hotel in the virtual world of Second Life this Septembera preview of a real hotel project planned for launch in 2008. Based on the S... [Read More]

» http://4realz.wordpress.com/2006/08/04/115/ from 4 Realz
2nd Life: Where virtual worlds collide with real world businesses to create interesting business opportunities.  ... [Read More]

» Links du Jour 08-05-06 from Strategic Name Development Product Naming Blog
Starwood Previews New Hotel Brand in Second Life - I have blogged before about Starwood’s well-named new offering Aloft and now Micropersuasion gives us a heads up on the new brand strategy for the same product name: they are going to preview the hote... [Read More]

» Starwood Memories are Virtual from reBang weblog
Via the 3pointD weblog (Link) which was apparently aware of it but didnt blog it until Micro Persuasion mentioned it (Link), I learned about Starwoods project to have the Electric Sheep build a virtual hotel inside Second Life. You ca... [Read More]

» Starwood Hotels Debuts New Hotel Virtually from The Future of Media
Steve Rubel points to a fascinating little test on the part of Starwood Hotels, who will be debuting their new brand, “Aloft,” in the virtual world of Second Life before it makes an appearance in the real world. ... [Read More]

» Exploring Second Life – giving birth to myself from iStudio: Ideas & Insight
Second Life’s blogosphere buzz has been steadily building over the past year. Posts that contain... [Read More]

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Extraordinary. I'd love to see this as part of a trend to testing out public architecture - or even stuff as basic as home extensions - online in places that the public actually go. If virtual visitors get the chance to say "This is really ugly" , "My shop next door has been driven out of business because people can't see me" or "I'm in a wheelchair, I can't get in", then it increases the chances of not making silly mistakes.

Truly it is great to see this kind of thing, and we will continue to see more and more of it. The problem, is going to be getting people to come and give feedback voluntarily after the coolness factor wears off. Then again, there are plenty of gimmics to get people to do things. Undoubedly though, there will be so much of this in the future it will be hard for an individual project to get heard above the noise. This of couse says nothing against it, just what is going to be. Thanks Steve!

Now if only SL could simulate wild roomthrashing orgies.

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