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 the midst of ironing out the kinks in its newly merged loyalty program, Marriott was hit with news of a massive data breach last week. Revealed on Friday, the breach affects over 500 million former Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty members.
Loyalty members don't seem to be too bothered by Marriott's recent breach of more than 500 million users' personal data. Part of that could be low expectations for Marriott, or because this isn't the first data breach rodeo for many.
Most Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest members enjoyed a seamless integration earlier this year when the two programs merged. For some, however, latent issues are still hampering the experience. We asked five Starwood members about their journeys.
The planned integration of Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott Rewards did not go entirely smoothly this weekend. Some members were not shy about expressing their unhappiness.
Marriott and Starwood are ready to pull the trigger on integrating their loyalty programs — but will their hotel and loyalty members ever be ready for the change?