Dubai, UAE, September 7th 2009; Couture Media is delighted to announce their appointment as the Middle East public relations representative for Aloft Abu Dhabi.

The Aloft Hotel, the first of ADNEC's on-site hotels to open, will provide the UAE capital with 408 additional hotel rooms, making it the second largest hotel in Abu Dhabi, in terms of capacity.

The Aloft Hotel will be operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and will be linked directly to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, next to the Capital Centre district. It will bring a brand new lifestyle concept in hotels to the capital, targeting the niche market of today's forward thinking business travellers by offering a quality, designer product which is affordable with a focus on accessible technology, comfort and convenience.

Stephan Vanden Auweele, Aloft Hotel General Manager explains, "Aloft is the world's fastest growing hotel brand. It has re-invented the industry by ignoring certain aspects of hotels which have become clichéd and old fashioned in the minds of our target audience. For example, free wireless internet is very important to our customers, but room service and silver service tea lobbies are not. We provide what our customers want and don't concern ourselves with things that they don't; this approach reduces our costs and allows us to provide the customer with a lower price per room."

The Aloft Hotel will be located 20 minutes away from downtown Abu Dhabi and 15 minutes from Abu Dhabi International Airport. It will serve the ADNEC visitors and exhibitors but is also anticipated to become a regular destination for fashion forward self-expressers searching for new and stylish outlets.

"We are thrilled to be working with Aloft in Abu Dhabi, as it will bring a combination of sophistication and playfulness to this vibrant city," said Sarah Johnson, Managing Partner, Couture Media. "We feel that Aloft, with its innovative, fresh perspective on lodging; will provide a welcome alternative for travelers while also becoming an integral part of Abu Dhabi."

-Ends-

About Couture Media
Couture Media was established in 2007. Sarah and her team have more than ten years experience in public relations and corporate account direction with a particular passion for hospitality, luxury travel, cosmetics, events, entertainment and fashion. A reputation for hard work, enthusiasm, imagination and reliability, plus a strong track record with clients underlines our approach and philosophy. Couture Media offer complete campaign and project management, delivering integrated solutions and meeting tight deadlines with consistently high levels of accuracy.

Couture Media is also the exclusive Middle East partner of International Public Relations Team (IPR Team - www.iprteam.org) a global network of independent public relations consultancies established to meet the communications needs of businesses and other organisations operating in international markets.  

About aloft
Created to shake up the staid, traditional select service segment of the hotel industry, Aloft delivers urban-influenced, open and vibrant design and a social guest experience at an affordable price point. In the same way that W Hotels broke through the clutter of conformity in the upscale hotel arena a decade ago, Aloft is shaking up the industry for the next generation of traveler. Starwood recognized opportunity in the select serve market for reinvention and innovation and selected world renowned design and architecture firm Rockwell Group to collaborate on the new hotel concept. Aloft hotels are geared toward savvy, design-conscious consumers who grew up with the democratization of design Aloft hotels are wired for the future and an aggressive growth plan is in place with close to 50 properties set to open by the end of this year from Abu Dhabi and Baltimore to Dallas and Beijing and everywhere in between.

ABOUT STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, INC.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 960 properties in approximately 97 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched AloftSM, and ElementSM.  Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

About Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC)
Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) is a strategic international venue development and management company. ADNEC's venue portfolio includes one of the most modern exhibition centre's in the world - the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, and the UK capital's largest exhibition and conference venue, ExCeL London. 

ADNEC is creating unique business districts to serve Abu Dhabi's rapid expansion and emergence on the global stage.

Development projects surrounding the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre include Capital Centre (a mixed-use development of 23 hotel, residential, commercial and mixed-use towers adjacent to the exhibition centre), Capital Gate (an iconic 35 storey gravity defying feature tower, featuring the 5-star hotel - 'Hyatt at Capital Centre'), the Aloft Hotel and a 2.4km Marina zone on Al Bateen Channel opposite to the exhibition centre.

In addition, ADNEC is expanding within the region, with The Al Ain Convention Centre, a residential and business micro city around a state-of-the-art convention centre.

For more information visit www.adnec.ae;  www.alaincc.ae; www.capitalcentre.ae; www.capitalgate.ae; www.excel-london.co.uk;  

For all media enquiries regarding Aloft Abu Dhabi please contact:
Sarah Johnson, Managing Partner
Couture Media
Mobile : + 971 50 2251607
Sarahfpr@gmail.com
www.couture-media.com

Tanya Haroun
Aloft Public Relations Manager
Tel: + 971 2 406 4707
Email: Tanya.haroun@Alofthotels.com

© Press Release 2009