To stand out, hotel focuses on the arts

A band played, an artist painted, students wrote poems and guests were invited to tour art on each floor at the mid-April opening night of downtown Sarasota’s Arts Ovation Hotel.

The 162-room property is a Marriott Autograph Collection Hotel, a group of more than 140 hotels around the world that aim to tie in with elements of the local culture surrounding them. The Autograph Collection hotel in Tampa’s Soho District, the Epicurean Hotel, for example, has a culinary focus and is located across from Bern’s Steak House.