HOTELS

Jeff Weinstein

Starwood A Presence In New York
June 6, 2008

The 30th annual NYU hotel investment conference wrapped up earlier this week in New York City with a lot of consternation on display among leading executives about the state of the hotel business, especially in the United States. 


On the day the conference opened, Marriott International reported that its worldwide RevPAR in the second quarter would increase at the low end of the 3% to 5% growth range. The company is likely to report second quarter North America RevPAR growth of approximately 2%, compared to prior company guidance of 3% to 5%. That news sent several listed hotel stocks even lower.

The reported crowd of 2,400 (only approximately 1,500 delegates were counted in the attendee list) was looking for guidance and comfort that the bottom of the down market will not be as low as some fear in private moments. In public forums, however, there is bullishness about the potential in global markets, ranging from Brazil and China to Russia and India. That is where the growth story will be told in the months ahead, no doubt.

It is customary at events like this for the big chains to have flashy parties and make lofty announcements about new brands, exaggerated pipelines and bullish prospects for performance. However, on this occasion there was a dearth of announcements and far fewer press conferences than usual.

To no one’s disappointment, however, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, in its own backyard, was front and center with executive news, flashy parties and new prototypes to show off. In fact, Starwood was the only company to have a strong presence at the NYU conference.

While Hilton made news by stealing away two Starwood executives, Ross Klein, who had been president of Starwood's luxury brand group, and Amar Lalvani, who was global head of W Development, Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen made his first big public appearance during an interview conducted by Loews Hotel CEO Jonathan Tisch. Frits appeared as a high-motor type guy and was a formidable presence on stage extolling the virtues of his brands and the opportunities ahead for Starwood.

Later that evening, Starwood hosted its big aloft party as the brand finally gets ready to open its first hotel in Montreal. They brought party-goers such as myself across town in "green" pedi-cabs.



Of course, the party was very stylish, very cool and Starwood hired a bevvy of beauties to dress up the room. They served lots of martinis, had women walking around with trays of old-fashioned candy and put on a dance routine that was fun to watch. I am just not sure what it had to do with aloft.

The next day it hosted a lunch for us media types to show off its Element extended-stay brand, trot out its new president Simon Turner, formerly of Hotel Capital Partners, which does a lot of hotel development work for Saudi Prince Alwaleed, and then took the media on yet another tour of the re-tooled Sheraton brand.

At a time when the industry appears to be more concerned with contingency plans and controlling costs, as it well should be, Starwood made it known it was very much open for business and looking to grow its cadre of brands. They are no shrinking violet by any means—even in this very unsure marketplace.

Posted by Jeff Weinstein on June 6, 2008 | Comments (0)