It was odd timing, to be sure. At this year’s
Lodging Conference at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa,
Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced its hotly anticipated
spin-off of the W brand, the sleekly uncapitalized “aloft”
(rendering above, left), with high ceilings, huge windows, and all
the clean, hip elegance of a private urban loft space. Almost
simultaneously, all-caps newbie NYLO (above, right), whose
president helped launch and nurture Starwood’s W brand until 2004,
debuted its own line of loft hotels, based out of Atlanta. Is
sibling rivalry inevitable? NYLO CEO John Russell claims he
welcomes the competition. “I’m actually glad Starwood came out with
its loft product,” he says. “It will drive customers to say, ‘We’ve
got to try this loft thing.’ ”
