The group, which owns hotel chains including The Sheraton and Le Meridien, has recently signed a partnership deal with search giant Yahoo! that will put branded internet hang-out areas in the lobby of many of its Sheraton hotels.
Dubbed the Yahoo! Link@Sheraton, the initiative will include comfortable spaces outfitted with PCs where guests can email and grab a coffee while accessing the internet.
Cammie Dunaway, chief marketing officer at Yahoo!, said: "This pilot programme is part of Yahoo!'s ongoing effort to extend our brand beyond the desktop, bringing information and content to users anywhere, at any time."
The link-up, seen first at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina and Sheraton Boston, also provides guest with printing and free wi-fi and broadband internet access in Sheraton hotel lobbies.
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 and Yahoo! Finance Tracker.
Starwood followed the Yahoo! launch with its much-discussed blog TheLobby.com, where among other things guests can share their experiences, good and bad. The blog has been mentioned as one of a number of corporate blogs, GM's being another, that have successfully brought customer and business together.
Staffed by a team of travel writers recruited from travel-related blogs, the site brings together Starwood's brands and individual hotels including a regular column by Starwood associate William Sanders, aka The Starwood Lurker, who has been featured in USA Today, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for his frank talk in chat rooms such as Flyer Talk.
TheLobby.com also features regular columns such as "My Favourite Hotel", "Room with a View" and "It Happened Here". Other features include top 10 lists and weekly contests and giveaways, travel tips and trend reports on fashion, travel and high-tech gadgets.
The idea of involving customers to create content is being extended into other areas of its digital strategy at the Sheraton, as part of the hotel brand's relaunch of its website in June.
It is what Chad Waetzig, senior vice-president of marketing at Sheraton, calls "user-generated content" that will include hotel guests posting their travel stories, which can then be linked to other content on the site by subject matter and interests.
"User-generated content is the key to the new Sheraton.com. Users will be able to post content about their hotel experience, which can then be sorted by interest."
In the run-up to the launch of the new site, Sheraton is offering guests the chance to win five nights in any Sheraton in the world and round-trip airfare for five in association with American Express. To enter people simply write up a travel story and submit it at Sheraton.com.
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