Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Encyclopedia
Hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers...
ownership and management organization, headquartered in White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its nine owned brands. As of December 31, 2009, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. owned, managed, or franchised 992 properties employing over 145,000 people, of whom approximately 26% were employed in the United States.
History
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
investment firm Starwood Capital to take advantage of a tax break; at the time the company was known as Starwood Lodging. Initially, Starwood Lodging owned a number of hotels throughout North America, all under different brand names. The Westin Hotel Company was purchased in 1994 from Aoki Corporation of Japan. Starwood acquired the Sheraton
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...
, Four Points by Sheraton
Four Points by Sheraton
Four Points by Sheraton is a Starwood Hotels & Resorts hotel brand, targeted towards business travelers and small conventions. The Four Points is Starwood's 3rd largest brand and is found in over 24 different countries with around 149 properties worldwide....
, and The Luxury Collection brands from ITT Sheraton in 1998.
In 1999, Starwood launched their "W" Hotels brand. In September 2005, Starwood announced the launch of aloft, a new hotel brand based on W. aloft Hotels catered toward business travel
Business travel
Business travel is the practice of people traveling for purposes related to their work. It is on the rise especially with foreign business markets opening up...
ers. Starwood intends to have 500 aloft hotels worldwide by 2012. In 2005, Starwood purchased the Le Méridien brand, which greatly increased the company's operations in Europe.
In 2004, Starwood's founder and CEO Barry Sternlicht
Barry Sternlicht
-Barry Sternlicht:Barry Sternlicht is the founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Capital Group, the private investment firm focused on global real estate, energy, infrastructure and securities trading. He is also Chairman of Starwood Property Trust, now the largest commercial...
stepped down as CEO to focus his attention on his other firm, Starwood Capital. He remained on the Board of Directors until 2005. He was succeeded as CEO by Steven J. Heyer, and Starwood began selling a number of its company-owned hotels, instead focusing on becoming a management company and franchiser
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
for its current and future hotel brands. In April 2007, Steven J. Heyer left the company on the request of the Board of Directors because of an issue with Heyer's management style and after allegations of personal misconduct. Chairman of the Board Bruce Duncan served as interim CEO until September 2007, when the company announced Heyer's successor, Frits van Paasschen.
Brands
(The following list of Starwood brands is chronological, according to each brand's entry into Starwood)Westin
The Westin Hotels and Resorts brand is Starwood's largest upscale hotels and resorts brand. It was bought by Starwood in 1994 and is also the oldest brand within Starwood, dating back to 1930.
Sheraton
Sheraton is Starwood's 'flagship' brand, providing luxury hotel and resort accommodation. It began operating in 1937 and was sold to Starwood in 1998 by ITT.Four Points by Sheraton
Four Points by Sheraton was launched by ITT in 1995 as a mid-scale hotel brand. Originally the brand was created by re-naming existing Sheraton "Inns" (a smaller, limited service version of Sheraton Hotels). The new name avoided the confusion some guests found in having two hotel categories (full service and mid-scale) with the same name (Sheraton). These hotels joined Starwood along with Sheraton in 1998.The 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 2009; each Luxury Collection hotel now uses its own logo. Many hotels in The Luxury Collection are smaller establishments in converted palaces or other significant buildings, others are lavishly restored historic hotels.
Confusingly, a few hotels in The Luxury Collection which were originally part of the ITT Sheraton Luxury group kept their Sheraton name when the Luxury division was spun off as a completely separate brand under Starwood. There are six such hotels remaining today, operating with the name Sheraton, but not part of Sheraton.
W Hotels
W Hotels is Starwood's luxury boutique hotel brand, generally marketed towards a younger crowd. It was launched in 1998 with the W New York, a conversion of the old Doral Inn hotel at 541 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. The first few W hotels were mainly conversions of existing hotels already within the Starwood group. The brand has since expanded with over fifty hotels and resorts around the world.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".
The W Barcelona
W Barcelona
W Barcelona, popularly known as the Hotel Vela due to its shape, is a building designed by Ricardo Bofill is located in the Barceloneta district of Barcelona, in the expansion of the Port of Barcelona...
hotel was W's first in Western Europe and opened in October 2009. It features a futuristic design by architect Ricardo Bofill
Ricardo Bofill
Ricardo Bofill, also Ricard Bofill Leví is a Catalan Spanish postmodernist architect.He studied at the School of Architecture in Geneva, Switzerland...
in the shape of a sail. Standing 26 stories tall, it can be seen from all over the city. The property is located next to the beach. It also includes a Bliss spa, gym and conference facilities.
St. Regis
St. Regis is Starwood's main luxury brand, launched in 1999. It is named for The St. Regis HotelThe St. Regis Hotel
The St. Regis New York is a Forbes five-star, AAA five-diamond luxury hotel in Manhattan. It stands on Fifth Avenue, four blocks from Central Park.-Construction and opening:...
in New York, which was built in 1904 in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
at 5th Avenue and 55th Street by John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
, who also founded the Astoria Hotel (which later became the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
) and who died in 1912 on the RMS Titanic. In the 1930s, head bartender Fernand Petiot
Fernand Petiot
Fernand Petiot was a bartender who claimed to have created the Bloody Mary, a popular cocktail drink.-Biography:...
, introduced the Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary (cocktail)
A Bloody Mary is a popular cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and usually other spices or flavorings such as Worcestershire sauce, Peri-Peri Sauce, Tabasco sauce, beef consomme or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olive, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and celery salt...
cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
. The St. Regis was a Sheraton from 1966 on, and following a lavish restoration from 1985-1991 was part of the ITT Sheraton Luxury division before it became the cornerstone of Starwood's new brand. All St. Regis properties except The Lanesborough in London use The St. Regis name.
Le Méridien
Le Méridien was founded by Air FranceAir France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
in 1972 and was sold to Starwood in 2005, by which point it was based in the UK. It has 130 properties worldwide and its first property was Le Méridien Etoile in France.
Aloft
Aloft is a mid-scale, urban-style business / boutique hotel brand. The brand was launched in 2005 as a 'vision of W Hotels', a relationship similar to Four Points by Sheraton and its 'brand parent', Sheraton. It has been criticized for being too slick and formulaic.Element by Westin
Announced in 2006, this is Starwood's first brand of hotels intended to be environmentally friendly. The designs include energy and water efficient features. The first Element hotel opened in Lexington, Massachusetts in July 2008. As of April 2010, there are seven Element hotels in operation in Denver (Park Meadows), Las Vegas (Summerlin), Houston (Vintage Park), Dallas (DFW Airport), Ewing NJ, Lexington, and Arundel Mills (BWI Airport). Two Element hotels are scheduled to open within the next year, in New York City and Omaha, Nebraska. Element hotels are built eco-friendly from the ground up, from the floors made of recycled materials to energy-efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures.Partnerships
It has a credit card partnerships with American ExpressAmerican Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
(MBNA Canada Bank partnership replaced by American Express in 2010). Starwood Preferred Guest also has a partnership with 32 affiliated airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
s allowing guests to redeem their points for flights under the "SPG Flights" program. According to Starwood Hotels and Resorts' corporate profile, the SPG program has over 41 million members.
StarPoints
StarPoints can be used by Starwood Preferred Guest Members(SPG) to redeem free nights at Starwood's hotel properties. In addition, they can be used for merchandise with their partners such as GAP, Westin at Home, Nordstrom and more.
Member Tiers/Levels
There are 3 main levels of Starwood Preferred Guest. First, there is the basic level, preferred. Next, there is gold level. Lastly, there is Platinum Level. Each level has better perks. They can be found on the SPG Website
In addition to obtaining these statuses through hotel nights, all Starwood Vacation Ownership owners are automatically enrolled into the Gold Starwood Preferred Guest Program. Some owners of several weeks(5* Elite Owners)are enrolled into the Platinum Starwood Preferred Guest program.