Skift Take
With all the flurry of commotion that comes with Marriott's deal for Starwood is concern for hotel owners in marketplaces that may be overpopulated with brands and properties all flying under the same flag and competing for guest loyalty.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson and Starwood Interim CEO Adam Aron addressed letters to their most important customers on Monday: hotel owners.
“That right there reflects the importance of stakeholders,” says Alan Lewis, partner, L.E.K. Consulting. “They are obviously very keenly sensitive to the fact that these owners can be very active advocates for themselves and have a choice of who they flag with. Consumers don’t recognize this, but if anything the most important customers for these hotel brands and flags are the owners.”
Marriott caused a stir after announcing its plans to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts for $12.2 billion, creating the world’s largest hotelier with more than 5,500 properties spanning over 100 countries.
The deal, the first major M&A since Blackstone acquired Hilton in 2007, has left the hotel world asking plenty of questions, like what this mega-merger means for guests, loyalty points, partnerships, the OTA landscape, and staffing. Can a beast of this size integrate successfully, or, like nearly 70 percent of all mergers, is it doomed to fail?
Yet overlooked and largely cast aside in the media shadows are the h
