Test beds in Lexington

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: Travelers looking for a place to rest while recharging their iPhones or calculating their carbon footprint now have two options along Route 128: The tech-savvy Aloft and the ecoconscious Element hotels. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc unveiled these two in Massachusetts chains, in hopes of appealing to business travelers visiting the beltway of tech firms here and leisure travelers wary of contributing to global warming while they unwind.

The company chose this historic town as the site for its first Aloft in New England and its first Element in the country as a way to recycle the real estate it’s owned for more than 30 years and to test services and amenities on a batch of ideal hotel guests before rolling out the brands elsewhere.

“We like the Lexington community and its sensibility toward the environment,” said Brian McGuinness, vice-president of Aloft and Element hotels. “They have embraced open green spaces, community parks, and recycling. When we decided to launch these brands, we thought it only fitting to reinvigorate our space that we own there, to reinvigorate our place within the community.”

To do that, Starwood tore down the old Sheraton Inn. It reconfigured the 6-acre site, blasting rocks to carve out a grassy open space and building two hotels that face each other on the lot. Both hotels have ecofriendly features—like VIP parking for hybrids—and offer the same high-tech amenities—like free Wi-Fi throughout the properties—but they market themselves differently.

With room rates starting at $109 a night, Aloft is supposed to be a more affordable version of Starwood’s W chain. Aloft caters to individualistic, stylish, tech-savvy, business travelers who fall into the 25-to-49 age range and prefer do-it-yourself options, according to a presentation the hotel created about its target customers. These travelers shop at Target and Williams-Sonoma, “fly JetBlue, not the other guys,” “prefer Apple over Microsoft and IBM,” “have an iPod (a real one) and not an MP3 player,” “pair Hermes with Gap, Polo with Levis,” are “relatively in shape” and use skin-care products.

Aloft’s hot-pink, racing-stripe-themed lobby features a virtual concierge that helps travelers book restaurant reservations using a touch-screen PC as well as self-service check-in kiosks to the left of the front door.