Yahoo! and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Help Guests Stay Connected with Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton
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Yahoo! and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Help Guests Stay Connected with Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton
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Category: Worldwide
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2006-01-10
Industry-first relationship enables guests to stay in touch while out of town with free Wi-Fi and broadband Internet access, localized online information, and 30-day free Yahoo! service trials
Sunnyvale, Calif. and White Plains, New York – January 9, 2006 – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), a leading global Internet company, and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.'s (NYSE: HOT) largest upscale brand, announced today an industry-first strategic relationship that will keep Sheraton guests connected in comfort while on the road. Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton is the first of many Sheraton initiatives to roll out this year that reinforces the brand's values of offering its guests signature services and amenities in a warm, comfortable environment that will help keep them connected to what matters to them most. Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton officially debuts today both as a physical and virtual space at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina and Sheraton Boston, and as a virtual space at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers and Sheraton Stamford in Connecticut.
Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton offers a unique and convenient online experience that enables guests to surf the Internet, email loved ones, review local favorite attractions and even print up boarding passes. Customized features include free Wi-Fi and broadband Internet-enabled lounge installations in Sheraton hotel lobbies and a co-branded, locally-tailored portal website available on computers in the lounge areas and in guestrooms. Also available exclusively for Sheraton guests is a special premium service bundle that includes a 30-day free trial of several of Yahoo!'s most popular services including Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Yahoo! All Star Games, Yahoo! Finance Tracker and Yahoo! Briefcase.
“Yahoo! and Sheraton are both committed to offering a unique and personalized experience for our visitors, and working together to create the Yahoo! Link is a natural fit,” said Cammie Dunaway, chief marketing officer at Yahoo!, Inc. “This pilot program is part of Yahoo!'s ongoing effort to extend our brand beyond the desktop, bringing information and content to users anywhere, at any time.”
Out of Town Doesn't Mean Out of Touch
Through this strategic relationship Yahoo! and Sheraton Hotels help guests stay connected by offering both business and leisure travelers access to the same resources they would have in the comfort of their home or office, at anytime during their stay.
“At Sheraton Hotels we provide our guests with a sense of community, helping them connect to what is important to them. In the Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton guests will find a warm, comfortable environment where they can catch up on work, email their family and friends or just sit back and relax,” said Javier Benito, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “This unique relationship with Yahoo! will help our guests stay in touch with their home base, as well as the city they are visiting no matter where their travels take them all through our co-branded website, 24 hours a day.”
The Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton experience begins as guests make their way through the hotel lobby and enter a specially designed communal lounge area featuring comfortable seating, refreshments and a plasma television. Multiple Internet-enabled workstations complete with free 24/7 Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity and PrintMe features are also made available for Sheraton guests and visitors. Designed to function as a “virtual concierge,” the Yahoo! Link @ Sheraton website, available on all lounge and guestroom computers, will provide Sheraton guests with current local information such as weather conditions, nearby restaurants and attractions, and local driving directions. Guests and hotel associates can also add their personal favorites and reviews of local restaurants and attractions to the website. In addition, Sheraton guests will receive an exclusive 30-day free trial of a customized Yahoo! premium services bundle including Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Yahoo! All Star Games, Yahoo! Finance Tracker and Yahoo! Briefcase.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! seeks to provide online products and services essential to users' lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
About Sheraton Hotels
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, with 400 hotels and resorts in more than 70 countries, is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood® Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, Sheraton®, Westin®, Four Points® by Sheraton, W®, Le Méridien® and the recently announced AloftSM. 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.
(Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and involve risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. These risks and uncertainties are presented in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained or that results and events will not materially differ. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.)
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