Starwood Hotels, the parent company of Sheraton and Westin Hotels, is launching a new brand under the moniker Aloft. The new hotels hope to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack by providing loft like rooms with high ceilings, advanced technology offerings (MP3 docks, flat panel TVs, etc.), and a lounge scene designed to bring guests out of their rooms. To showcase this new hotel format Starwood partnered with the Electric Sheep Company to build a Second Life based preview hotel on Aloft Island. While you can't stay in the hotel, you can see what your room would look like, and determine the best seating location in the lounges for scoping out potential dates.

They are also blogging the build process as it progresses. It looks like a top notch build, but I am not sure I fully get it. How often do you shop around for a hotel beyond checking hotels.com or expedia.com? I never do. Unfortunately, this got me stuck in a horrible slum at last year's E3, but this was one bad experience in a life time of cheap uncaring hotel bookings. Is there really a market for hotel previews? I guess we will find out.