Over the past decade we've seen a ton of consolidation in the airline industry, and now we're seeing a similar trend with hotels. IHG is buying Kimpton, Accor is buying Fairmont, Raffles, And Swissôtel, and most significantly, Marriott is buying Starwood. It sure seems like this cycle of mergers is far from over, and we…
Continue reading: How Does Hyatt’s CEO Feel About The Marriott/Starwood Merger?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Rethinking their loyality brand? And basically giving it away to anyone that wants it!!
I am SPG plat and Hyatt Diamond. Both earned if it matters anymore. I'm shifting to only SPG because of Hyatts play by the rules that they only want to play by. Also they deluited their program so heavy last year. Also I went to Park Hyatt Sydney and the do not participate in the DSU. So I say you just lost me and last year I spent 50 nights! So rethink that! Lucky it would be interesting to hear what YOU think!
Since they are privately owned (well, they are indeed public, but outstanding common shares have almost no voting power anyway) the management is not pressured by activist funds like in Starwood case. So they can do whatever they want to do. Great to be a CEO of a pseudo-private company owned by Pritzkers.
I hear a lot of loyalty program managers these days talk about creating "experiences" for and "emotional connections" with guests... But it's much easier said than done, and I personally find it rare that large hotel companies are able to deliver on that.
How does the CEO feel?
Well the CEO is most probably hired or instated by the President,
In the US, this has been a policy of being the same person.
How does the guest feel?
The hotel world, is becoming very much like the airline-alliance world, where you end up with an oligopoly market, with at present probably 3 players (Star, OneWorld and Sky-Team). Based on all economic theory, this is not good for competition. This would probably drive prices up.
A perfect example of this is the former oil-capital of Norway, Stavanger.
Hotels would normally stay at an occupancy rate of +85% during the weekdays,
Prices was therefore driven to maximum. I can recall an instance where I checked-in along side with a friend, whom had made his booking on a corporate rate for the oil-industry, he was paying USD 180 for his room, while I was living next-door in exactly the same room paying USD 300+.
The mergers within the hotel industry on chain-level, is not good. As most of the loyalty programs are based in "Banana Republics", there is no control in regards to competition clauses.
This would not have been a successful merger in the US airline industry
@peter fox
The hotel business is nothing like the airline business. Most hotels brands don't "own" hotels. Most branded hotels are owned by outside parties. Airlines, OTOH, own their planes.
With hotels, there's plenty of competition with independent operators. With sites like tripadvisor, it's easy to find those hotels, and find good ones at that. It's easy to book them.
No, the hotel business is nothing like the airline business.
While your comment about hotels versus airlines owning their asset is directionally correct, I'd remind you that a big chunk of airline volume comes from regional carriers. For example, Skyteam-->Delta operates via individual companies such as GoJet, SkyWest, etc. Delta doesn't own the asset, but they do operate the reservation system behind it.