Barry Sternlicht re-launches the Starwood Hotels brand

Barry Sternlicht, who founded Starwood, reacquired the name that Marriott International retired and plans to re-launch next month. Barry Sternlicht acquired a number of hotel brands. Westin hotels, founded in 1930, was acquired by ITT Corporation in 1966 and sold to Starwood in 1994. Westin’s first hotel was in Washington D.C., and so was Sheraton’s, in 1937. It too was acquired by ITT Corporation (1968) and merged with their Statler Hotels in 1972, and the brand was sold to create Starwood.

They launched W Hotels and reintroduced the storied St. Regis brand. In 1999, Starwood launched Starwood Preferred Guest, tying the brands together and bringing together Westin Premier and Sheraton Club International. Starwood was all about lifestyle hotels and innovated in loyalty: they were first to market with “true redemption” (any standard room was available for redemption on points) and suite upgrades for frequent guests, if available at check-in. Starwood also innovated with guaranteed late checkout.

Nowadays, Sternlicht controls three hotel brands: Baccarat, 1 Hotels, and Treehouse. The development pipeline: The new Starwood has plans to open 22 hotels in the pipeline through 2028, including 1 Hotels in Austin, Texas; on Crete and in Seattle; Treehouses in Manchester, England, and Miami; and Baccarats in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; the Maldives and Rome.  That will add to 30 hotels today, bringing the chain to 52 hotels plus any additional they sign, develop or acquire. That is far from the calibre of Marriott Intl, Hilton or IHG.

1Hotels offers modest rebates, guaranteed late checkout, and upgrades – plus at top tier a complimentary personal training session each year. They’ll need to exceed the offerings of competitors in order to convince guests to stay loyal, since it’s always harder to remain loyal to a smaller chain. Loyalty and additional progress to scale would be the difference-maker.