Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) was my favorite loyalty program and the one where I used to concentrate all of my travel. That changed in 2016 when Marriott bought the portfolio of hotels for $13 billion and formed the largest hotel group in the world. Now, the original founder of Starwood wants to bring back the brand with a new collection of hotels.
Starwood had some of my favorite brands and these are the ones I still find myself staying at post acquisition. St. Regis is my favorite, but I spend a good number of nights at W Hotels, Luxury Collection, and even Westin when traveling on business. Marriott folded all of these brands into its massive portfolio at acquisition and in my opinion, devalued the loyalty program, created a monster that is too big to sustain in terms of making guests feel valued, and will never have the soul that Starwood once held.
All of that being said, 64-year-old Barry Sternlicht founded the original Starwood and is the CEO of real estate investment firm: Starwood Capital Group. The firm owns a collection of hotels under the Baccarat, 1 Hotels, and Treehouse flags. Sternlicht wants to take this portfolio and begin a new Starwood. Next month, the holding company of these brands, SH Hotels & Resorts, will change its name to reflect his old brand. He hopes that this will bring additional interest in his hotels and visibility with a name that is known.
When Starwood was sold to Marriott, there were 1,300 properties spread across 100 countries. Currently, Sternlicht has 14 properties in five countries with 22 in the pipeline (and people complain about Hyatt’s “small” footprint). The 22 hotels will all open by 2028 with 1 Hotels slated for Austin, Crete, Riyadh, and Seattle; Treehouse set to open in Manchester Miami, and Riyadh; and Baccarat planning luxe accommodations in Dubai, the Maldives, Riyadh, and Rome.
Unfortunately, I feel that you can’t go home again and Sternlicht will never be able to grow a portfolio akin to what Starwood once offered. The tiny collection of hotels are under some impressive brands, but I see these rolling into Hyatt’s portfolio before a standalone Starwood would be able to take on the industry giants (Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott.)
Anthony’s Take: We’ll see what Sternlicht is able to do here and I wish him luck. Starwood holds a place in my heart and nostalgic memories. I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about Marriott and find them more a necessary evil as they have hotels in all of the places where I need them.
(Image Credits: Starwood and Baccarat Hotels.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
As a past fan of Starwood I hope this venture will succeed. I don’t necessarily expect it to flourish and the elite benefits chart is surprisingly weak but I’m happy to consider SPG as an option if there’s a hotel where I’m searching. We need a hotel chain option that provides things that create the loyalty Starwood has; Hyatt is the closest to doing that and Hyatt is slipping even now.