Intercontinental Hotels Group, Parent company of Holiday Inns and Staybridge Suites, last week honored the Las Cruces location with a request for them to submit information and photographs to be considered for a Brand Design Award for 2008.  In 2008 the hotel added 28 additional long term stay suites, an additional guest use laundry area, a communal dining table in the Great Room, a Home Theater Room, “public-private meeting space” and an Internet Cafe.

The Communal dining table is a High top table that seats up to eight persons.  It has a granite top and custom pendant lighting. It has become a popular gathering point at almost any time of day for singles or groups.

For those groups that need just a little more privacy, the hotel installed “public-private meeting space”  on the 4th floor.  It is a public space that was designed so that small groups, not wishing to purchase private meeting space, could meet in a semi-private atmosphere for informal meetings.  The space is arranged with flexible seating and in separate pods.  Each of the pods has a CRT for displaying laptop presentations and a meeting board is available for brainstorming sessions.

For singles and couples the hotel designed an Internet Cafe on the third floor.  The area contains a modern coffee shop atmosphere and decor, a complimentary coffee maker that makes 25 varieties of coffee, teas and cocoas, background music, seating for singles and couples, wired and wireless Internet access and a complementary full body massage chair.  The staff even keeps the area stocked with biscotti.

The second floor contains the Home Theater.  This area is for public use and can be reserved for private showings.  The room contains plush recliner seating with drink holders, a state of the art surround sound system, special sound deadening walls, an extra large Digital High Definition screen, DVD player, Blue Ray player and a popcorn machine.

The winner of the Design award for the Staybridge Brand will be announced at the IHG Annual Investor’s Conference in the Fall of 2009 in Washington DC.