The Starwood Experience

In what they call a first for the lodging industry, Starwood is transforming the typical hotel visit into an experiential stay as part of a new philosophy distancing the company from hotel bed wars and price-based competition to focus on building world-class brands powered by innovation and core values.

“We are committed to connecting emotionally with our guests through our brands, with brand-specific innovation, the creation of memorable experiences, resulting in the cultivation of great preference and brand loyalty for Starwood brands,” Starwood CEO Steven J. Heyer said in a statement.

In 2004, Heyer came on board at Starwood from Coca-Cola to replace Barry Sternlicht as CEO. Sternlicht was a tough act to follow, after previously transforming Starwood from a failing real estate investment trust in 1995 into one of the most successful hotel chains in the world by 1999. Sternlicht also initiated the “bed wars,” when Starwood was the first hotel company to introduce a signature bed, Westin’s Heavenly Bed, in 1999.

At the beginning of 2005, Heyer hatched an ambitious plan to reposition the Starwood brands and design a new marketing approach to promote lifestyles. At a sales-associate meeting in San Diego, he challenged divisions to create an emotional experience for their customers and match their brands with a “societal trend.”

Together Heyer and Javier Benito, Starwood’s new executive vice president and chief marketing officer as well as a fellow Coca-Cola alum, have spent the past 18 months spearheading the repositioning initiative. The result is nine individual brands, each with distinct and defining core words designed to illicit an emotional response. The nine brands include Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection and W, as well as the newly acquired Le Meridien hotel chain; new brand Aloft, which is based on the W philosophy; and ESW, a planned extended-stay brand.

Inventing the Experience
When Sue Brush, senior vice president of Westin Hotels & Resorts, met with Heyer to discuss Westin’s repositioning, he asked her if there was one word to describe Westin. She responded, “wellness,” considering the launch of Westin’s Heavenly Bed and amenities, as well as the Westin Workout fitness program. To expand on the idea, Brush and Heyer settled on the idea of “renewal.”

“We landed on the idea of not just sleep, shower and workout, but the broader context to be at your best, to achieve your potential and to feel better when you left a Westin than when you arrived, and that is the whole idea of personal renewal,” said Brush. “Our core values then became personal, instinctive, renewal.”

According to Brush this means delivering very personalized services like welcome greetings or using a clients’ name throughout their visit, and being instinctive by anticipating clients’ needs before they ask.

The first aspect of this branding was the sensory welcome program a first step in providing guests with a renewing oasis when they walk into a Westin.

“Research told us that if you could make a positive impression in the first 10 minutes of a guests’ stay, the chances of them having a good stay throughout, leaving feeling good and wanting to return were pretty high,” said Brush.

The program involves a signature white tea scent; a conceptualized lighting design by Phillips that adjusts the lighting throughout the day; music developed by an eMusic eMusicologist; and specialized botanicals designed by Bloom in New York City. All of these comprise Westin hotel guidelines, which operate under what Brush refers to as “freedom in a framework.”

The biggest new Westin initiative, and possibly the one drawing the most media attention, is the brand’s decision to go smoke-free. After extensive research and an overwhelmingly positive response from consumers, Westin decided it was a must.

“If we really believe in personal renewal and standing by our positioning and making a statement to stand for something, non-smoking would be the perfect match,” said Brush.

But when asked if this would be a Starwood-wide initiative, she was quick to point out that one of the most important concepts was brand differentiation.

“If you’re trying to differentiate brands, you wouldn’t necessarily have the same initiative for all of them,” she said.

What does the future hold for Westin? The Heavenly Spa initiative will be rolled out brand-wide, with in-room treatments available throughout the chain, as well as new restaurant concepts with menus that reflect the Westin’s concept of wellness.

“By the end of the year, you will be able to go to any Westin hotel in the world and get a spa treatment in the privacy of your guestroom even if the hotel doesn’t have a full-service spa,” said Brush. “We think that’s a first.”

Like Westin, each Starwood brand has core words that tie into the emotional feelings clients would have when staying at a particular property. And it is partnering with different companies and agencies to redevelop and reposition itself to make the brands’ core values come to life.

To create the core value of connection, Sheraton has partnered with Yahoo to create Yahoo!Link@Sheraton, a lobby lounge area where guests can check their e-mail, surf the Net and even print their airline boarding passes for free. Other lounge features, like plasma televisions, refreshments, magazines and newspapers create a warm, comforting, communal environment Sheraton’s other core values.

W, Starwood’s hipster hotel brand, now offers Bliss amenities in guestrooms. The trendy New York City spa chain is now a part of the growing Starwood conglomerate. Other partnerships include Nordstrom, Pepsico and Amazon.com.

In addition, brands have new ads reflecting their positioning, color palettes, language, vocabulary and Web sites based on their core values.

Showing its support of the agent community, Starwood has made it a point to involve agents in the repositioning. According to Karen Hughes, vice president of global leisure sales and distribution, agents have had input into marketing strategies, as well as development of the experiences that will connect Starwood brands with agents’ clients in an emotional way.

“We have two advisory boards leisure and luxury that include senior executives of leading agency consortia and organizations, such as ASTA, who have been involved in testing and feedback all along the way,” said Hughes. “So the voice of the travel agency community is well represented.”

Selling Starwood
How is the agent community benefiting from the rebranding? Brush says that since the brand repositioning, Starwood offers more.

“It gives them so much more to sell,” said Brush. “Clients are going to feel better as a result of [Starwood’s new innovations].”

And Hughes agrees that by adding clarity and core values to each different brand, Starwood hotels will be easier to sell.
“Clarity makes [the agents’] job of selling much easier. We have created very distinct core values of each of our brands, and as agents become more and more familiar with them, they will find it very easy to match them with the trip personas of each of their customers,” she said. “Once they truly understand the expectations of their customers, they will be able to match them to one of our brands and have the confidence that the experience will be just what they were looking for.”

According to Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Hawaii and French Polynesia, Starwood has a brand for every client.

“We’re able to attract a pretty wide spectrum of potential travelers both business and leisure because of the different brands,” he said.

According to Vieira, agents should find out what clients are looking for once they have chosen a destination. What are their price points? What are their service levels? Are they a St. Regis potential customer or a Sheraton or a Westin customer. The core values help to actually define these points for agents’ clients.

“[The rebranding] has really given the hotels a focus point,” said Vieira. “Now, we have to make sure we balance the brand delivery with the destination.”

The new balance between the brands is the difference between the Starwood of today and the Starwood of the past. In 1999, when Brush first joined Starwood, brands were tiered vertically, with St. Regis and the Luxury Collection at the top.

“Now we talk about them horizontally because everyone has a different place. They are not distinguished by rate but by guest experience,” she said. “Starwood continues to be a leader with it’s innovation, and they’ve taken a very unique approach to the brands to try and define the guest experience in a new and different way. It’s not how much you pay, it’s the experience you have.”