Signature Work · 2022
Starwood Hotels
Sonic Identity, AV Standards & Entertainment Strategy
1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels and Treehouse Hotels were each built without a sonic DNA. None had a sonic brand bible or experiential programming guidelines. A third-party music vendor decided how each brand’s values should sound in each of its spaces. Guests moved through an experience that felt disjointed from one room to the next. L’Acqua Agenzia was engaged to define how each brand sounds, write the standards that build that sound into every new hotel, and direct the music and programming across the portfolio.
Sonic Brand Bible
Each brand has its own bible covering tone, instrumentation, rhythm, emotional range and genre direction. Every venue is then mapped zone by zone, from lobby to pool deck, with its own sonic brief. The bibles now guide all 22 properties in the portfolio.
AV Brand Standards
Sound is specified before the walls go up. L’Acqua reviews speaker systems, zone mapping and music distribution with the AV integrators and IT teams on every new project.
Daypart Design
Music is programmed to move with the hours, and with the lighting, from morning coffee to the rooftop at midnight. Each space sounds right for the time of day its guests are in it.
Signature Franchises
Recurring live music concepts, DJ programs and daylife programming are built once and scaled across properties.
Partner Oversight
L’Acqua sources and vets the curators, agencies and talent buyers, then holds them to the brand. That includes quarterly zone-by-zone playlist reviews with the portfolio’s streaming partner.
Leadership & Openings
For each new hotel, L’Acqua helps recruit and train the Entertainment Director, sets booking frameworks and programming calendars, and guides the team through pre-opening. The portfolio has grown from 11 hotels to 22 during the engagement, with 15 more in the pipeline.
Lead Music Curator
L’Acqua is the lead music curator for all three brands, covering every venue across the portfolio. That includes seasonal playlists for each brand’s streaming channels, and the music behind its social posts, videos and campaigns.
Three brands that had no sonic DNA now each sound like themselves, from the lobby to the beach club. Across 22 hotels and 96 F&B venues, including rooftops and beach clubs, music is specified, built in, and directed under one vision. Retained since 2022 and renewed every year since, L’Acqua Agenzia remains the sonic lead as the portfolio grows.
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