frequently asked questions | everything you want to know
Are you affiliated with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.? No! We are in no way, shape or form affiliated with Starwood Hotels or any of its subsidiaries. Our site is an independent endeavor to provide Starwood patrons with an informative and useful site for future Starwood stays. The opinions expressed on this site represent those of our contributing authors and editors and are in no way the words of Starwood Hotels. Is there a business purpose behind StarwoodLobby.com? Although we're both entrepreneurially-minded and enjoy business, we didn't create this site to make a profit. You'll notice that there is only unobtrusive advertising on the site, for example, and that all the photos are attributed and linked directly to their sources. As travelers who enjoy the Starwood collection of hotels, we wanted to create a repository where other travelers could go to get unbiased reviews on places to stay. That being said, we're business people! We believe that companies should benefit from independent communities like StarwoodLobby to improve their products and enhance their brands. Rich market insights can develop from sites like this, particularly for "lifestyle" brands such as Starwood, Apple and others. I wonder if our old marketing professors would agree... Why do you use flickr for a lot of your image content? Great question! We believe flickr is a superb tool for expanding our community and adding value to StarwoodLobby. Flickr has grown into a wonderful collection of searchable images, many of which are professional quality. We get good content and talented photographers get more exposure (no pun intended). Simple, right? What's your favorite Starwood hotel? Hmm... anything St. Regis is fine by us ;-) What do you do when you travel and no Starwood hotel is available? Sidewalks, cardboard and ragged blankets... Are you going to extend this concept, like to Hiltons and Marriotts? Besides Starwood, only a handful of other hotel companies have been successful at creating fantatical customers. As the company puts more emphasis on brand and develops their W and aLoft concepts, a stronger sense of loyalty will develop among the chain's guests. Starwood has transcended a room-only guest relationship. Its hotels don't just sell functional benefits, but an emotional attachment to a desirable lifestyle. Some might say that Starwood, like Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton, give their guests an identity. Until we find other chains (in our demographic) that have elevated themselves above simple hotels, we're sticking with Starwood.