Private company

Aloft Hotels

Aloft Hotels is an American hotel chain based in North America, owned by Marriott International.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

2005Founded1

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Aloft Hotels is an American hotel chain based in North America, owned by Marriott International. The first hotel opened at the Trudeau International Airport in Montreal in 2008. Aloft Hotels have since opened across North America and internationally. Most Aloft hotels are located in city centers or in close proximity to airports. As of April 9, 2023, the chain had 233 hotels.2

How it started

History

Aloft Hotels was conceived in 2005 by Amal Abdullah. The hotel chain already had several brands, including Sheraton, Westin, and W Hotels, but was looking to expand into a market of more contemporary hotels. To reflect its relationship with Starwood Hotels, the Aloft brand was dubbed "A Vision of W Hotels". Starwood worked with the architectural company Rockwell Group and its founder David Rockwell to come up with the design.

To generate interest in the brand before its 2008 opening, Starwood launched a virtual tour of the hotels using Second Life, which enables visitors to move through a typical Aloft Hotel and explore its aspects in detail. Starwood monitored statistics from the site, gauged public reception based upon visitors' opinions, and incorporated this information into the design of future Aloft Hotels. Aloft became part of Marriott International in 2016 when Marriott acquired Starwood.

From Wikipedia’s article on Aloft Hotels, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 2005Founded Founded1

Sources

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