Starwood CEO on merger: "We were not a company in trouble"

http://www.hotelmanagement.net/star...merger-we-were-not-a-company-in-trouble-34230

We were at the Buganvilias Club last week that is next door to the Sheraton Buganvilias Resort. The story mentions the tiering of the Sheraton Brand and we heard that it is the goal of this resort to get branded as a "Grand Sheraton" but it will take time to make the necessary improvements. The linked story is interesting to read, IMO.

They are in the process already of improving the beach to make it more sandy without all the pebbles. The beaches in Nuevo Vallarta are so much better but this location is so close to the center of town which is a big plus.

On the timeshare side, they are going to build an infinity pool and refurbish Building B completely. I will comment about that in the Mexican forum later.

Thanks for sharing. Anxiously awaiting news on the SPG program.

Emmy, thanks for sharing this. It's always good to get perspectives from executives involved, even if some of the information is guarded.

Best regards.

Mike

Thanks for sharing article. Difficult to view Starwood as surfacing as a stand alone entity in the MARRIOTT system. In a realitively short period Starwood has split its timeshares and its hotels into two separate components and has sold them. In my opinion Starwood will only exist is the short term until all the logistics are worked out. Starwood has been a great company to work with, MARRIOTT not so much, and neither has Interval. I suspect that the Starwood components will embrace the corporate mentality of their acquirer - will be interesting to see how this turns out.

We just went to a Starwood owner enhancement session while we are still in Maui - expressed my concern over the merger and indicated that most owners that I have spoken to in my travels are very worried, if not upset with the merger. He told me that was not his experience (he lost some credibility with this statement). He said that the acquisition of Starwood Hotels would only enhance the SPG program - of course he had nothing tangible to base this on. He also said the timeshare component and the SPG aspect would not change (again no basis). In my opinion, current owners should express their concerns to Starwood, MARRIOTT, SEC or anyone else so that our interest can be recognized and preserved post merger!

Lansdowne said:

... Difficult to view Starwood as surfacing as a stand alone entity in the MARRIOTT system. In a realitively short period Starwood has split its timeshares and its hotels into two separate components and has sold them. In my opinion Starwood will only exist is the short term until all the logistics are worked out.

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I agree with this. In fact, I believe Starwood's interim CEO has said that the Starwood name will be going away soon.

Lansdowne said:

... Starwood has been a great company to work with, MARRIOTT not so much, and neither has Interval....

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I don't have much experience with Marriott, so I have no opinion there. However, when you say "Starwood has been a great company to work with," are you referring to Starwood hotels or Starwood timeshares? A lot of Starwood hotel customers are happy, but I see a lot of dissatisfaction here on TUG with Starwood timeshares over the past few years. Big increases in MF fees, a change in how weeks are deposited in II and RCI -- a lot of Starwood owners on TUG are not happy campers (or rather, happy timesharers.)

As for Interval Leisure Group, I have always been quite happy with their companies -- II, Trading Places, and also VRI, which manages many of the timeshares I own. In fact, now that Interval Leisure Group is buying the Sheraton/Westin timeshare company, I am more likely to buy Sheraton or Westin weeks.

I am interested in what others here think about this -- is it a good thing or a bad thing that Starwood timeshares have been acquired by Interval? (The acquisition of Starwood hotels by Marriott is almost certainly a bad thing for people who like the SPG program, but the hotel acquisition is a separate deal from the acquisition of Starwood timeshares.)