A beloved hotel brand is making a comeback: Starwood is being revived
A brand beloved in the points and miles community is making a comeback.
Hotelier Barry Sternlicht is reviving the Starwood brand, according to The New York Times. This is music to the ears of those of us who loved the hotel chain and were huge fans of its groundbreaking loyalty program.
Sternlicht created the Starwood brand in the 1990s and launched the incredibly popular Starwood Preferred Guest program in 1999. He left the company eventually, and it was sold to Marriott nine years ago in a $13 billion deal that made Marriott the world's largest hotel chain. By the time it was sold, the Starwood umbrella had included now-iconic brands such as W, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points and St. Regis. Sternlicht was behind amenities like Westin's Heavenly Bed, which helped make the Westin chain so popular with many loyal guests.
But his best idea was a stellar loyalty program.
SPG was known for its generous perks for elite members, including innovations like guaranteed 4 p.m. late checkout, an ambassador program and generous suite upgrades. Thus, many SPG elite members (myself included) were very sad to see the loyalty program go.
I was an SPG Platinum Preferred Guest, and as you can see from the screenshot below, SPG also had membership innovations like Crossover Rewards (which allowed members to earn Starpoints with Delta SkyMiles), frequent bonus-points promotions and lucrative offers that would give guests 1,000 points just for declining housekeeping with its "Make a Green Choice" program.
Elite SPG members who transitioned to the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program were not always happy with the benefits that Marriott offered. Now, a lot of longtime SPG fans are hopeful about the resurgence of the Starwood brand and what it could mean for a future loyalty program.
"At a time when most large hotel chains are favoring the needs of hotel owners over customers, a pioneer of customer loyalty is getting back into the fray," said Edward Pizzarello, a small-business owner and longtime SPG elite member (Pizzarello is also a contributor to TPG).
"Barry Sternlicht's laser-sharp focus on guest experience created a loyal customer base previously unseen in the hospitality industry. Road warriors and luxury travelers alike should be eagerly awaiting this return," said Pizzarello.
The revival of the Starwood brand is just the latest move in Sternlicht's plan to create another hotel empire. In recent years, Sternlicht has been busy ideating new hotel chains within his current company, SH Hotels & Resorts. These smaller brands will now instead fall under the revived Starwood name, including Baccarat Hotels, which licensed the name of the luxury French glassmaker to create upscale properties like the Baccarat Hotel New York.
Sternlicht also founded 1 Hotels, a lifestyle hotel brand that focuses on sustainability and environmental harmony within its properties. Another brand he's developed is Treehouse Hotels, which features a vintage vibe. In all, there are 22 hotels in the Starwood pipeline from these various brands, with future locations in Austin; Seattle; Manchester, England; Crete, Greece; Rome; and the Maldives.
Related: Sustainable-chic in San Francisco: A stay at 1 Hotel San Francisco
"Designing hotels and keeping them on brand is fun," Sternlicht told The New York Times.
While a relatively small-scale hotel chain's loyalty program won't be able to compete with the likes of Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt, it's still an exciting development for those of us nostalgic for SPG.
We don't yet have any details on what a potential loyalty program will look like — and if Starwood Preferred Guest will be resurrected — but those of us who were huge fans are looking forward to seeing how it develops.
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