Holy Moly. Marriott is acquiring Starwood [Hotel Business, not Timeshares]

[MULTIZ321]

Starwood Hotels Lost Its Chinese Suitor. Now It's Marriott's Challenge. - by Geoff Colvin/ Leadership/ Starwood/ Fortune/ fortune.com

"Investors fear that Marriott is paying too much for Starwood.

The fight for Starwood HOT -4.85% is apparently over, but the story of what happened has yet to be told. We’ve been following this saga since Wu Xiaohui, CEO of China’s mysterious Anbang Insurance Group, disrupted a friendly deal for Marriott International MAR -5.69% to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts just a few weeks before shareholders were scheduled to vote on it last Monday. Wu offered to pay a higher price than Marriott was paying; Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson then topped Wu’s bid; Wu topped Sorenson – and then late on Thursday withdrew his offer. It appears that Sorenson’s last offer, which the Starwood board under chairman Bruce Duncan had accepted, is now good enough to buy Starwood. Unless some entirely new bidder jumps in...."

Pedestrians pass in front The Westin New York, a Starwood Hotel Bloomberg via Getty Images

Richard

 

[SueDonJ]

Letter today from Arne Sorenson:

"We're excited to announce that we've secured shareholder approval for Marriott International to join together with Starwood Hotels & Resorts—a significant milestone towards creating the world's largest lodging company and strongest loyalty program in the industry. Since we announced our plans to merge with Starwood, you've raised questions about the impact of the merger on your membership and the Marriott Rewards® program. I want to take this opportunity to provide an update on where we stand.

Serving our valued guests has always been our priority at Marriott, and your feedback is important to us as we collaborate with Starwood on the vision for our loyalty programs.

After we become one company, we expect to run parallel loyalty programs while we engage in the complicated work of integration. During this period, there is no change to how you manage your Marriott Rewards account or book reservations, and you will maintain your existing member benefits for some time.

The good news is that we have many possibilities ahead of us because Marriott and Starwood both have great loyalty programs. We intend to draw upon the very best of both Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®) to provide even more value to our members.

Here are just a few of the future opportunities we're excited about:
• Giving our members access to our collective portfolio of 5,500 hotels and resorts in more than 100 countries.
• Offering even more unique benefits to help members pursue their passions and greater opportunities for exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
• Personalized and relevant service before, during and after the hotel stay.
In the meantime, we're actively exploring ways to build bridges between the two programs to further enhance your experience.

Marriott remains committed to evolving our Marriott Rewards member benefits. Our recent announcement of Marriott Rewards Member Rates is the latest way we're showing our loyalty to our members. These new rates are exclusively designed to reward members with the lowest rates available across our portfolio when booking directly on Marriott.com, our easy-to-use app, our call centers or through select corporate travel professionals.

We are grateful for your loyalty, and we are listening to you and taking your input into consideration. Our merger is on track to close midyear, and as we have more news to share, we'll reach out to you. In the meantime, we will continue to provide you with the exceptional service and travel experience you have come to expect from us at Marriott. You can find the latest updates on Marriott.com and via Twitter (@marriottrewards), and as always, reach out to us through our hotels, at our website, in our Marriott Rewards Insiders community, on the Marriott app or via our call centers.

Thank you for your continued loyalty, and happy traveling!


Arne Sorenson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Marriott International, Inc."

 

[x3 skier]

The Similar Starwood Letter said nothing's going to happen to merge the MR and SPG programs until 2018.

Cheers

 

[Werner Weiss]

The Similar Starwood Letter said nothing's going to happen to merge the MR and SPG programs until 2018.

Here's the full paragraph from Starwood:

Getting answers to these complicated, important questions will take time. In fact, we don’t anticipate launching a newly combined program until 2018. This means SPG will continue to run separately until then. In the meantime, we’re actively exploring ways to build bridges between the two programs to further enhance your experience.
​

Although there won't be a single, combined program until 2018, the merged company will "build bridges between the two programs" before then.

To me, the most obvious first step would be some sort of reciprocal recognition of elite status between the two programs.

 

[bazzap]

Marriott’s Integrating Some SPG Benefits Long Before the Merger

If confirmed, this could offer some worthwhile early benefits of the merger, albeit primarily targeted at Marriott hotels.
Marriott’s Integrating Some SPG Benefits Long Before the Merger

http://thepointsguy.com/2016/04/mar...ail&utm_term=0_2b0b8ee2b7-5efbaef171-38463509

 

[SueDonJ]

Here's the link from marriott.com: Enhanced Benefits / Get More Rewards

Here's today's press release from news.marriott.com: Members Get It — Introducing a New Experiences Marketplace and Elite Benefits

 

[billymach4]

Lawsuit filed against Merger

http://www.internationalmeetingsrev...filed-against-marriott-starwood-merger-102783

Marriott International’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts has hit another speed bump: Owners of hotels in two major hub cities have filed a lawsuit claiming that the acquisition would violate their exclusivity agreements, Bloomberg reports.

 

[Werner Weiss]

http://www.internationalmeetingsrev...filed-against-marriott-starwood-merger-102783

Marriott International’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts has hit another speed bump: Owners of hotels in two major hub cities have filed a lawsuit claiming that the acquisition would violate their exclusivity agreements, Bloomberg reports.

It's not surprising that there are a few hotels operating under franchise agreements from when Sheraton and Westin were single-brand hotel companies, not just brands of a multi-brand hotel company. I can imagine old contracts with exclusivity clauses that don't differentiate between the company and the brand.

The owners of those hotels might have some leverage to renegotiate with the combined Marriott-Starwood company. But I can't imagine a scenario where that would result in the merger falling through entirely.

 

[bazzap]

It seems that with approval now from China, the conclusion of this deal is only a few days away.
Interesting times and exciting new possibilities.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...es-antitrust-approval-in-china-300330889.html
Marriott's Acquisition Of Starwood Receives Antitrust Approval In China
Starwood Anticipates Delisting of its Shares from Trading on the NYSE Before Market Open on September 23

 

[Wally3433]

I want access to Bora Bora! Let's go!

 

[pharmgirl]

Going to china again in March
Assume we will have choice of more hotels for points! Previously just st stayed at marriot family hotels, which are very nice

 

[Werner Weiss]

According to Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson earlier this year, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest will be combined into a single program in 2018, but there will be "bridges" between them before then.

Here's my speculation regarding how the two systems will come together:

For the rest of 2016, nothing will change.

At some point in 2017, both programs will provide a mechanism to register for reciprocal elite status. There may also be a way to transfer points between the two programs, but this seems less likely, especially because the two point systems are not equivalent currencies — SPG points have two-to-three times the value per point but are harder to earn with hotel says. Marriott will have to deal with this difference, but not right away. Before the end of 2017, Marriott will announce the details of the combined program.

At some point in 2018, but probably not on January 1, the two systems will be combined. Point reservations made under the two old programs will be honored, even if the stays will be after the programs are combined. The new system will be a lot like Marriott Rewards, but there may be a new name and a new graphic look to recognize the significance of the SPG program and the loyalty of its members. SPG balances will be multiplied by 2.5 or 3 as they are moved into the combined system. Marriott's quasi-separate Ritz-Carlton Rewards program is likely to be fully incorporated into the combined program. The system of Marriott categories, SPG categories, and Rtz-Carlton/Edition tiers will be combined. The new categories are likely to be based on the current Marriott Rewards categories, but with a number of higher categories for luxury properties and future "category creep."

Again, this is all just speculation.

 

[MOXJO7282]

At some point in 2017, both programs will provide a mechanism to register for reciprocal elite status.

This alone would be a very nice perk for MR Platinum elite members. I guess if there is going to be only one system how else could you manage it but this could bring some really nice upgrades at the higher end Starwood properties. It will be interesting how that is handled.