After nearly a decade stowed away on the shelf after being acquired by Marriott International, the Starwood Hotels name is back.
SH Hotels & Resorts — a sustainable hotel brand management company that includes the 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels and Treehouse Hotels brands — is officially rebranding itself as Starwood Hotels.
“Reintroducing the Starwood Hotels name is personally very exciting for me. It’s a tribute to a legacy that millions of people know and trust — and it comes at a decisive moment in our company’s history,” Barry Sternlicht, founder and chairman of Starwood Hotels and chairman of Starwood Capital Group, said in a news release. “By reviving the Starwood Hotels name, we aim to marry this trusted legacy of youth, innovation and guest focus with our modern, tech-enabled, personalized approach to hospitality. As we take this next step, we’re doubling down on our mission to inspire, innovate, and make a difference — for our guests, our partners and the planet.”
Sternlicht founded Starwood Hotels & Resorts roughly 30 years ago, building it into one of the biggest hotel companies in the world. The company included hotel brands such as W Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien and Four Points. In September 2016, Marriott completed an acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts for $13.6 billion.
While all of Starwood Hotels & Resorts' legacy brands were being added to Marriott's portfolio — making Marriott the largest hotel company in the world — Sternlicht had already planted the seeds for the eventual return of the Starwood name when he launched SH Hotels & Resorts back in 2015.
In March 2015, SH Hotels & Resorts and the 1 Hotels brand debuted with the 1 Hotel South Beach on Miami Beach. Five months later, the 1 Hotel Central Park in New York City opened. The 1 Hotels brand now has 10 locations open across three continents, with another 10 properties in its pipeline.
Also in 2015, the Baccarat Hotels brand was launched with the Baccarat Hotel New York. This remains the only Baccarat-branded property to open, but there are seven properties in its pipeline with a total of 1,260 rooms.
Its third brand, Treehouse Hotels, opened its first and only open property in the Treehouse Hotel London back in 2019. There are five properties in its pipeline with a total of 1,277 rooms.
In a recent interview with Hotel News Now at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Starwood Hotels CEO Raul Leal said the name change was something Sternlicht had been thinking about for quite some time. Sternlicht technically retained the Starwood name with Starwood Capital Group, a private real-estate-focused investment firm that he founded back in 1991.
“It’s near and dear to his heart,” Leal said. “It’s a beloved brand still in the eyes of consumers and employees. From our perspective, it’s just going to help us grow the existing platform, the current lifestyle, mission-driven hotels that we have.”
Marriott President and CEO Tony Capuano said in an HNN interview at ALIS that Sternlicht reached out to him about a year ago to discuss using the Starwood Hotels name once again. Given that Starwood Capital has remained prevalent since the deal in 2016 and Marriott hadn't used the Starwood name much, Capuano obliged.
“I think in some ways, it’s an interesting validation of both our strategy and other big-brand company strategies,” Capuano said. “You look for something that ties together a diverse set of brands. [Sternlicht has] evolved now. He has 1 Hotels, he has Baccarat, he has Treehouse, and so presumably he’ll use that name to try and pull together a diverse portfolio."