Articles tagged “starwood”

Barry Sternlicht is bullish on his second go-around with Starwood Hotels. But it has a long way to go to reach the heights of its heyday.

Barry Sternlicht's first attempt at building a hotel empire worked out pretty well: He started Starwood in 1991 with $20 million, and eventually sold a 1,300-property empire to Marriott for about $13 billion. Will the sequel be as good?

In Skift's top stories this week, tour operators prepare for Japan to reopen to tourists this year, short-term rental properties in the U.S. become more expensive, and Booking and Expedia develop Super Bowl ads.

A slightly abrupt announcement as Kurt Ekert steps down just days before the appointment of a new CEO. This news doesn't bode well.

Arne Sorenson was a maverick in his own way. He quietly visited Airbnb headquarters in 2014 to get a better understanding of short-term rentals, which culminated in Marriott's Homes & Villas. And he found a way to have a mutually beneficial relationship with those "evil" online travel agencies.

While this latest data breach pales in comparison to the one Marriott faced in 2018, it likely won't help the hotel giant in rebuilding trust with guests who hand over personal information through the hotel giant's tech platforms.

You can see the dilemma that Marriott and other hotels face: Keep passport data strictly at the property level, where management may not be technically adept, or centralize the information where it can be potentially hacked in one fell swoop. CEO Sorenson is leaning toward the local approach. Either way is risky business.

In February, Marriott will unite its former three loyalty programs under a new flagship brand called Marriott Bonvoy.

In short: The data breach was not as bad as we originally thought, but it was still pretty bad, and fairly big.

Several years ago, the hotel industry fought U.S. federal watchdog efforts to fine chains for negligent data protection practices, arguing that hotels had things under control. Hmm. A rash of hotel security incidents since then undercuts the claims of hotels, which need to take a more bank-like approach to data protection.