The Starwood Hotels chain now has a blog: www.thelobby.com. The about section or mission statement of the site reads:

To help keep Starwood Preferred Guests on top of the latest travel trends, Starwood and Electric Artists have assembled a team of travel writers to contribute to this site. Every weekday this site will be covering the latest and greatest in worldwide travel.

The Starwood chain consists of luxury hotel brands such as: the W, Sheraton, St. Regis, Le Meriden, etc. The posts discuss high-end travel accessories, exotic destinations and cool gadgets. The site will be updated weekly by Electric Artists, a marketing firm that specializes in blogging.

According to the Wall Street Journal, thelobby.com represents the first corporate blog in the hotel category. The WSJ also points out that thus far, PR and advertising through corporate blogs have had mixed success.

I think that blogs can and will have tremendous marketing potential. However, marketers must keep the content relevant to the targeted consumer. For example, one must first consider: who are the likely to readers of blogs in general? Surely it wouldn’t make sense for Kmart or Sears to have a blog in 2006.

Thelobby.com could serve as fun, hip and engaging way to keep loyal customers informed of new improvements, developments, and specials within the Starwood Hotel family. I would sign up for an RSS feed or an email subscription for updates on cool new destinations or discounted hotel rates – especially if I traveled more often. I like the idea and I will certainly watch this space.

[tags] Starwood, Starwood Hotels, the lobby, thelobby.com, marketing, marketing.fm, corporate blogs, WSJ, Wall Street Journal, Electric Artists, Sheraton, St. Regis, Le Meriden, travel blogs, RSS [/tags]