Several weeks ago, we learned about how the iconic Starwood Hotels brand would be revived. There’s now an update, as this has taken place. This sounds super exciting in theory, though like many sequels, maybe it makes sense to manage your expectations?
Continue reading: Starwood Hotels Brand Revived, As SH Hotels & Resorts Rebrands
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I still can't believe Marriott didn't buy the rights to Starwood. That aside, Starwood 2.0 isn't even going to be factor for 99.9% of hotel customers unless they expand. Obvious acquisition targets include Omni, Loews, Club Quarters, Pendry, Drury, and Valencia. But you'd likely need to invest a lot of money in Drury and Omni to bring them up to a good standard. If you acquired all those small chains, maybe you get maybe 300 new hotels.
Barry’s own firm is Starwood Capital, so I’m sure it was a nonstarter for him to give the name - even for hotels - to Marriyuck.
I was a Starwood loyalist who went out of my way to stay at their often out of the way properties, becoming lifetime platinum. Then Marriot comes in and creates two new tiers above platinum, and doing all the other crap that makes Marriott so uniquely mediocre re and awful.
I am a capitalist and I don’t bemoan Sternlicht the right to sell to the highest bidder. But I will never again support any of his properties as a customer
Dury is unlikely to sell as they're family owned and content with being a regional hotel company. And I'll add their properties are nice for midscale level from my experience.
Will all due respect, this is kind of silly. First - Sternlict had nothing to do with the sale of Starwood to Marriott. He was not involved with Starwood at the time of the sale - Starwood was a public company with a different CEO, board, etc. If you have any issue with how the merger went, direct that to Marriott. Second - people can spend however they want, but if you don’t stay at an objectively good hotel (this new Starwood, Marriott, whatever) because of some corporate action years ago, you are just limiting your own options for no reason
Especially in some markets where there aren't many options. Most are somewhere between a Hilton Garden Inn and a Courtyard. It would fill a niche. It's why Hyatt should have bought Radisson.
One day hopefully soon, there will be a hotel and an airline that is a true pleasure to use.
Remember Starwood took over some big brands to get big quickly, Sheraton, Westin, Meridien. Don't know if thats Barry's plans this time.
It sure would be nice, instead of just competing for SIZE, there comes some beautiful hotel and airline in our world.
You say that many of the innovative things Starwood did with loyalty have been replicated, but the execution is frequently lacking. Starwood Platinum guest felt recognized and important almost every time. In Bonvoy, definitely not the case. If they add some mid-sized chains like they did last time, and they nail the execution on making Platinum guests feel very welcome they will gain a lot of followers. Read some of the other stories like Aloft doing away with breakfast for elites, the crazy devaluation of points, etc. There is definitely room for someone coming in and nailing the basics.
You limit your options even more when you suck at the teat of loyalty programs and do dumb crap like mattress runs and all manner of ridiculous spend just to tell some company that does not care about you that you are loyal to them.