Aloft to Open Hotel Inside Second Life

Posted by miuki as Games

This is way outdated I must say, but since the hotel isn’t exactly opened until September 2008. It is still new worth talking about.

In a gaming first Aloft Hotels is going to debut its new hotel online in Second Life before the actual bricks-and-mortar hotel opens in 2008.

In September, Second Life’s visitors will be able to enter an aloft hotel and interact with others as they get a sneak peek at the hotel before the first aloft opens its doors. Visitors can follow the development progress of building the 3-D virtual aloft hotel online via a companion weblog at virtualaloft.com. Each week the weblog will be updated with daily diary entries from the 3-D developers as they build the virtual hotel.

“The aloft brand is about providing an escape from the ordinary and reinventing everyday experiences,”

- said Brian McGuinness, Vice President of Aloft Brand Development.

“Our debut within Second Life will give digital travelers a chance to dream in another dimension, and unwind their virtual selves in our social spaces, such as w xyz, our aloft bar. They will be able to provide feedback on our designs and self-service features like the re:fuel grab & go gourmet food area - all before the first groundbreaking.”

Second Life was created in 2003 by San-Francisco based Linden Lab. It is a virtual online world where trend setters are flocking to exchange ideas, egos and virtual property using “avatars”, or highly-customized 3D representations of themselves.

The act of placing a real-world entity, such as aloft brand, into the fantasy realm of Second Life has becoming a growing trend.

Most recently, American Apparel became the first retail chain to open a virtual store in Second Life. Major League Baseball also created a “Baseball” island on Second Life, which hosted live television coverage of this year’s MLB Home-Run Derby on virtual stadium Jumbotrons while the event was simulated on the virtual field.

Through Second Life, the Aloft Brand is educating thousands of potential customers about its differentiated lifestyle brand. In the same way W Hotels broke through the clutter of conformity in the upscale hotel arena, aloft will raise the bar in the select-service category, offering loft-style guest rooms, bright, airy environments with 9-foot ceilings, over-sized windows and energetic social centers. By the time the real-life hotels open, aloft hotels will already feel like home for many.

In addition to the Aloft Brand’s debut inside Second Life, the new brand’s technology focus includes large, HDTV ready flat-panel televisions, plug & play (the aloft brand’s one stop connectivity solution incorporating power and audio/video connections for multiple electronic gadgets), and Wi-Fi internet access throughout the hotel.

The blog is very good read and includes details from the developers as they turn 2D-drawings into 3-D modeling; terraform land; code in LSL and create textures. Aloft is a brand of Starwood Hotels.