 |
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| Public | |
| Traded as | NYSE: HOT S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Hospitality, tourism |
| Founded | 1969 as a REIT 1980 as a corporation[1] |
| Headquarters | Stamford, Connecticut |
| Products | Hotels, resorts |
| Revenue | |
| Total assets | |
| Total equity | |
|
Number of employees
|
181,400 (2013)[4] |
| Website | www.starwoodhotels.com |
| Footnotes / references [5][6] |
|
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is an American hotel and leisure company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.[7][8] One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its ten owned brands. As of 1 December 2014[update], Starwood Hotels and Resorts owned, managed, or franchised over 1,200 properties employing over 180,400 people, of whom approximately 26% were employed in the United States.[9]
On November 16, 2015, Marriott International said it would purchase Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide for $12.2 billion, creating the world's largest hotel chain.[10]
Contents
History[edit]
Starwood Hotels and Resorts was originally formed by the real estate investment firm Starwood Capital to take advantage of a tax break; at the time the company was known as Starwood Lodging.[11] 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, Four Points by Sheraton, and The Luxury Collection brands from ITT Sheraton in 1998.
In 1999, Starwood launched their "W" Hotels brand.[12] In September 2005, Starwood announced the launch of Aloft, a new hotel brand based on W. Aloft Hotels catered toward business travelers. In 2005, Starwood purchased the Le Méridien brand.[13][14]
In 2004, Starwood's founder and CEO Barry Sternlicht 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 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.[15] Chairman of the Board Bruce Duncan served as interim CEO until September 2007, when the company announced Heyer's successor, Frits van Paasschen. Van Paasschen served as CEO until February 2015, when he announced that he was resigning in a mutual decision with the board of directors.[16]
Starwood has customer contact centers (CCC) in nine locations: Wichita, Kansas; Austin, Texas; Fall River, Massachusetts; St Thomas, Ontario; Cork, Ireland; Singapore; Tokyo, Japan; Guangzhou, China; and Gurgaon, India.
In late May 2014 reports surfaced that the company had recently made a takeover bid for InterContinental Hotels Group worth $10 billion, which neither company confirmed or denied.[17]
In November 2015, it was announced that Starwood would be acquired by Marriott International for $12.2 billion.[18]
Brands[edit]
(The following list of Starwood brands is chronological, according to each brand's entry into Starwood)
Westin[edit]
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 and still continuing with it.
Sheraton[edit]
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. Also under the Sheraton brand are 7 Vacation Ownership properties.
The Luxury Collection[edit]
The Luxury Collection brand began when ITT Sheraton purchased a controlling interest in CIGA (Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company), an Italian hotel chain, in 1994. Those hotels, as well as a number of top-tier Sheraton Hotels, were then marketed as ITT Sheraton Luxury Hotels. After Starwood bought Sheraton, they established a separate brand identity for The Luxury Collection and expanded it.
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. Many hotels in The Luxury Collection are smaller establishments in converted palaces or other significant buildings, others are restored historic hotels.
Confusingly, some 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 four such hotels remaining today, operating with the name Sheraton, but not technically part of Sheraton. These hotels are the Sheraton Addis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit (Bangkok, Thailand), Sheraton Algarve Hotel (Albufeira, Portugal), 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 World's 15 Most Expensive Hotel Suites list complied by CNN Go in 2012.[19]
Four Points by Sheraton[edit]
Launched in 1995 under the Sheraton Group's brand, this brand is a set of mid-range hotels that replaced the Sheraton Inn sub-brand of Sheraton.
W Hotels[edit]
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 and the brand has since expanded with over fifty hotels and resorts around the world.
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", the concierge is known as "Whatever Whenever", the laundry bag in every room is known as "Wash", and so on.
St. Regis[edit]
St. Regis is Starwood's main luxury brand, launched in 1999. It is named for The St. Regis Hotel in 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 was part of the ITT Sheraton Luxury division before it became the cornerstone of Starwood's new brand.
Le Méridien[edit]
Le Méridien was founded by Air France 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, a Vision of W Hotels[edit]
Aloft is a mid-scale, urban-style business / boutique hotel brand. The brand was launched in 2005, in a relationship with W similar to Four Points by Sheraton and its 'brand parent', Sheraton.
Element by Westin[edit]
Announced in 2006, this is Starwood's first brand of hotels intended to be environmentally friendly. The designs include energy and water efficient features.[20] The first Element hotel opened in Lexington, Massachusetts in July 2008.[21] 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.
Tribute Portfolio[edit]
Launched in April 2015, Tribute Portfolio is the 10th brand of Starwood.[22] Similar to The Luxury Collection brand, Tribute Portfolio is a collection of independent hotels but with a focus on four-star hotels instead of five-star ones.[23] Individual hotels under this brand gain access to Starwood's sales platform[23] and participate in the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program[22] but do not share their look and feel.[24]
Starwood Preferred Guest[edit]
Partnerships[edit]
Starwood has a credit card partnership with American Express. A former partnership with MBNA Canada Bank in Canada was replaced by American Express in 2010. Starwood Preferred Guest also has a partnership with 32 affiliated airlines allowing guests to redeem their points for flights under the "SPG Flights" program.[25] According to Starwood Hotels and Resorts' corporate profile, the SPG program has over 21 million members.[9]
Gallery[edit]
- Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
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Former Starwood headquarters in White Plains
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Westin Times Square
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The historic Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit
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Sheraton Poznań
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The historic Hotel Imperial in Vienna
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The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, Costa Navarino, Messinia, Greece
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Hotel Romazzino in Costa Smeralda, Sardinia
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Form 10-Q". p. 7. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "STARWOOD HOTEL & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, INC 2013 Annual Report Form (10-K)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. February 24, 2014.
- ^ a b "STARWOOD HOTEL & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, INC 2014 Q1 Quarterly Report Form (10-Q)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. April 24, 2014.
- ^ STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, INC.Form 10-K, Securities and Exchange Commission, February 24, 2014
- ^ Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT) annual SEC income statement filing. Wikinvest. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT) annual SEC balance sheet filing. Wikinvest. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ "Investor Overview". Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
- ^ "Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT) Details". http://investing.businessweek.com/. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- ^ a b "Company Overview". Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
- ^ Nycz-Conner, Jennifer (November 16, 2015). "Marriott International to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in $12.2 billion deal". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
- ^ Celarier, Michelle (February 1998). "The trouble with REITs - real estate investment trusts". CFO: Magazine for Senior Financial Executives. ISSN 8756-7113. OCLC 42457969. Retrieved 11 May 2007.[dead link]
- ^ "News & Events". Development.starwoodhotels.com. 2013-04-04. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
- ^ "Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Completes Acquisition of the Le Meridien Brand". Hospitality Net. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ "Starwood Capital Group Acquires Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts Portfolio". Hospitality Net. 25 November 2005. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ Sanders, Peter; Joann S. Lublin (7 April 2007). "Starwood CEO's Ouster Followed Battle with Board Over His Conduct". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
- ^ Boyle, Catherine. "Starwood CEO quits in ‘mutual’ decision". CNBC. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ^ "InterContinental refuses a takeover bid worth $10bn, claims report". International Travel News. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ Smith, Aaron. "Marriott Starwood merger creates world's biggest hotel company". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
- ^ Arnold, Helen "World's 15 most expensive hotel suites". CNN Go. 25 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-11
- ^ "ELEMENT Lexington opens its doors". TTG MENA. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
- ^ "Opening Day of ELEMENT Lexington Marks the World Premiere of Starwood Hotels' Newest..." (Press release). Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
- ^ a b "Starwood Hotels Introduces Tribute Portfolio" (Press release). Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
- ^ a b "Why Starwood Launched Tribute Portfolio". Forbes. April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
- ^ "Starwood unveils a new 10th brand; Loews adds a third". USA TODAY. April 16, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
- ^ "SPG Flights". SPG Flights. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
