Starwood

Starwood Hotels is a subsidiary of Marriott International, an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Starwood was founded in 1969 and became one of the largest companies that owned, operated, franchised and managed hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties in the world before it was acquired by Marriott in September 2016.[3][4][5][6]

For other uses, see Starwood (disambiguation).
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Subsidiary
ISINUS85590A4013 
IndustryHospitality
FateAcquired by Marriott International
Founded1969 (1969), reorganized in 1995 (1995)[1]
DefunctSeptember 23, 2016 (2016-09-23)
HeadquartersStamford, Connecticut, U.S.
ProductsHotels, resorts
BrandsSt. Regis
The Luxury Collection
W Hotels
Sheraton
Westin
Le Meridien
Tribute Portfolio
Design Hotels
Four Points
Aloft
Element
Revenue $5.763 billion (2015)
$0.740 billion (2015)
$0.489 billion (2015)
Total assets $8.266 billion (2015)
Total equity $1.299 billion (2015)
Number of employees
188,000 (2015)
ParentMarriott International 
Websitewww.starwoodhotels.com/ 
Footnotes / references
[2]
Former Starwood logo

Starwood had 11 brands and owned, managed, or franchised 1,297 properties comprising 370,000 hotel rooms in approximately 100 countries.[2] It reorganized in 1995 under the baton of Barry Sternlicht, who was its chairman until 2005 and founder of the Starwood Capital Group.[2][1] The company has a business partnership with American Express and runs a member loyalty program among its business strategies.

Brands

Westin

Westin Hotels & Resorts was Starwood's largest upscale hotel and resorts brand. It was the oldest brand within Starwood, founded as Western Hotels in 1930, renamed Western International Hotels in 1963, and then Westin Hotels in 1981. The chain was acquired by Starwood in 1997.[7]

Sheraton

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts was Starwood's flagship brand, providing luxury hotel and resort accommodation. It began operating in 1937 and was sold to Starwood in 1998 by ITT Inc.. Also under the Sheraton brand are seven vacation ownership properties.

The Luxury Collection

The Luxury Collection brand began on January 13, 1992, when ITC Sheraton designated 28 of its premier hotels and 33 of the Sheraton Towers, the luxury "hotel-within-a-hotel" facilities located within Sheraton's largest and most exclusive hotels, as the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection.[8] The flagship of the division was The St Regis in New York City.

The division expanded enormously two years later, in February 1994, when ITT Sheraton purchased a controlling interest in CIGA (Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company), an Italian international hotel chain which owned a number of luxury properties across Europe.[9] The majority of the CIGA hotels were folded into the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection. Both ITT Sheraton and later Starwood kept CIGA's original logo (the four horses of St. Mark) for The Luxury Collection brand logo until 2010; each Luxury Collection hotel now uses its own logo. After Starwood bought Sheraton, it established a separate brand identity for The Luxury Collection. Many hotels in The Luxury Collection are smaller establishments in converted palaces or other historically/culturally significant buildings; others are restored historic hotels, such as Hotel Kämp in Helsinki, Finland.

Some hotels in The Luxury Collection, which were originally part of the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection, kept their Sheraton name when the Luxury division was spun off as a completely separate brand under Starwood. Most have been renamed over the last few years, there are only three such hotels remaining today, operating with the name Sheraton, but not technically part of Sheraton - Sheraton Addis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit (Bangkok, Thailand), and Sheraton Kuwait Hotel (Kuwait City, Kuwait).

A part of the Collection, the Royal Penthouse Suite, at Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, billed at US$65,000 per night, is listed at number 1 on the World's 15 Most Expensive Hotel Suites list compiled by CNN in 2012.[10]

Four Points by Sheraton

Four Points by Sheraton was launched in April 1995 under the Sheraton Group's brand as a set of mid-range hotels that replaced the Sheraton Inn sub-brand of Sheraton.

W Hotels

W Hotels was Starwood's luxury lifestyle brand, generally marketed towards a younger crowd. It was launched in 1998 with the W New York,[11] a conversion of the old Doral Inn hotel at 541 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan and the brand has since expanded with over 50 hotels and resorts.

Though the hotels vary from newly built flagship properties to more modest conversions of previous hotels, they have a common theme of spare, minimalist modern decor and hip, informal names for categories of rooms and public areas. For example, the lobbies of all the hotels are known as the "Living Room". W Hotels attempt to include the letter "W" wherever possible - the swimming pool is known as "Wet" and the laundry bag in every room is known as “Wash”. W Hotels are known for the trademarked “Whatever/Whenever” service philosophy and pioneered the now popular “lifestyle” hotels.[12]

St. Regis

St. Regis Hotels & Resorts was Starwood's main luxury brand, launched in 1999. It is named for St. Regis New York, which was built in 1904 in Manhattan at 5th Avenue and 55th Street by John Jacob Astor IV, who also founded the Astoria Hotel (which later became the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel) and who died in 1912 on the RMS Titanic. In the 1930s, head bartender Fernand Petiot introduced the Bloody Mary cocktail. The St. Regis was a Sheraton from 1966 on, and following a lavish restoration from 1985 to 1991, it was part of the ITT Sheraton Luxury division before it became the cornerstone and flagship of Starwood's new brand. The brand is represented on four continents, with a total pipeline of 57 operating and signed hotels as of April 2016.

Le Méridien

Le Méridien was founded by Air France in 1972 and was acquired by Starwood in November 2005, by which point it was based in the UK.[13] It has a total of 137 properties operating or in the pipeline worldwide, with its first property being Le Méridien Etoile in Paris, France. Le Méridien is positioned as an upper-upscale brand in the Starwood hierarchy and offers properties with an edge towards art, design and local destination, with each hotel customized to its respective location with the intent of "unlocking destinations" for guests. Certain locations offer guests complimentary access to art galleries and museums through collaborations and partnerships. Le Méridien has a partnership with the Italian coffee roasting company Illy, serving and promoting Illy-branded coffee and products throughout its hotels around the world.[14]

Aloft

Aloft Hotels was launched in 2005 as Aloft, a Vision of W Hotels, in a relationship with W similar to Four Points by Sheraton and its 'brand parent', Sheraton. Aloft is a mid-scale, urban-style business/boutique hotel brand.[15]

Element

Announced in 2006, and originally known as Element by Westin, this is Starwood's first brand of hotels intended to be environmentally friendly. The designs include energy and water efficient features.[16] The first Element hotel opened in Lexington, Massachusetts in July 2008.[17] Element hotels are built eco-friendly from the ground up, from the floors made of recycled materials to energy-efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures. In 2013, the first Canadian location opened in Vaughan, Ontario. In September 2014, the first German location opened in Frankfurt. In 2017, the first South East Asian location opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tribute Portfolio

Launched in April 2015, Tribute Portfolio is a collection of independent upscale to upper upscale hotels within the Marriott International portfolio of brands.[18] As of May 2019, there were 33 Tribute Portfolio hotels operating globally with over 45 hotels in the pipeline.

In April 2018, Marriott began a pilot program offering vacation rentals under the Tribute Portfolio brand.[19] As part of the test, the company partnered with Hostmaker to add 200 homes in London to the service.[20] This pilot ended when Marriott launched Homes & Villas by Marriott International in April 2019.

Design Hotels

Design Hotels, based in Berlin, provides hospitality services to a network of nearly 300 independently owned and operated hotels. Starwood has been a majority investor in Design Hotels since 2011.[21] In October 2015, Starwood announced that it would add Design Hotels to its brand portfolio.[22] Member hotels of the Design Hotels collection have the option to join the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program and gain access to Starwood's sales platform.[23][21]

Business partnerships and customer programs

Starwood had a credit card partnership with American Express, which also took over Starwood's former partnership with MBNA Canada Bank in Canada in 2010.

The Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program was merged with Marriott's loyalty program on August 18, 2018.[24][25]

Starwood Preferred Guest also had a partnership with 32 airlines, allowing guests to redeem their points for flights under the "SPG Flights" program. SPG had a "crossover rewards" program with Delta Air Lines, offering Medallion elite members certain elite benefits at Starwood Group hotels and offering certain Medallion elite benefits to SPG Platinum Preferred Guest members. The SPG program had over 21 million members.[26][27]

Data breach

On November 30, 2018, Marriott International disclosed that its Starwood brand had been subject to a security breach. After the disclosure, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced an investigation into the data breach.[28]

References
  1. "Barry Sternlicht". CNBC. June 15, 2017.
  2. "Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. 2015 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  3. Karmin, Craig (September 23, 2016). "Marriott Completes Acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts". The Wall Street Journal.
  4. Nycz-Conner, Jennifer (November 16, 2015). "Marriott International to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in $12.2 billion deal". American City Business Journals.
  5. Nusca, Andrew (May 26, 2017). "Marriott CEO: Here's Why We Did the $13.6 Billion Starwood Deal". Fortune.
  6. Trejos, Nancy (September 23, 2016). "Marriott, Starwood merger is complete, loyalty programs will reciprocate". USA Today.
  7. TIBBITS, GEORGE (September 9, 1997). "Starwood acquires Westin Hotels for $1.5 billion". Associated Press.
  9. "COMPANY NEWS; ITT's Sheraton Unit in Pact To Buy Ciga Hotels of Italy". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. February 10, 1994.
  10. Arnold, Helen (December 2, 2011). "World's 15 most expensive hotel suites". CNN.
  11. Clausing, Jeri (July 2, 2018). "W, the brand that invented 'lifestyle,' moves to abandon older properties". Travel Weekly.
  12. Maude, Belinda (February 28, 2017). "W Hotels: Is this the world's coolest hotel brand?". The Daily Telegraph.
  13. "Starwood Capital Group Acquires Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts Portfolio" (Press release). November 25, 2005.
  14. "Le Meridien ties up with Italian coffee brand illycaffe". Times Internet. May 31, 2009.
  15. "Aloft Hotels to Be the First Hotel Brand to Open Its Doors in Virtual Reality" (Press release). Business Wire. August 8, 2006.
  16. "ELEMENT Lexington opens its doors". TTG MENA. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
  17. "Starwood Hotels' Newest Lifestyle Brand, ELEMENT Hotels Travelers in Lexington, MA Will Be First to Rise, Shine and Thrive at ELEMENT Hotel" (Press release). Business Wire. July 1, 2008.
  18. "Starwood Hotels Introduces Tribute Portfolio" (Press release). Business Wire. April 16, 2015.
  19. Ting, Deanna (April 23, 2018). "Marriott Experiments With Homesharing". Skift.
  20. Dannen Redman, Laura (April 23, 2018). "Marriott Will Now Rent Out Homes and Apartments". Conde Nast Traveller.
  21. "More Access, More Destinations: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Expands Partnership with Design Hotels" (Press release). Business Wire. December 1, 2015.
  22. King, Danny (October 30, 2015). "New Starwood brand to be partnership with Design Hotels". Travel Weekly.
  23. "Hotel and Tour News: A Lodge in Kenya Evokes 'Out of Africa'". The New York Times. December 23, 2015.
  24. "Marriott, Starwood merger is complete, loyalty programs will reciprocate". USA Today. 23 September 2016.
  25. "Points-Obsessed Travelers Are Terrified of Losing Perks". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  26. Baskas, Harriet (November 17, 2015). "Starwood Loyalty Program Members Fret Over Marriott Acquisition". NBC News.
  27. Trejos, Nancy (September 23, 2016). "Marriott, Starwood merger is complete, loyalty programs will reciprocate". USA Today.
  28. Henney, Megan (November 30, 2018). "Marriott discloses data breach that could affect up to 500M guests". Fox News.
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