Does Westin by Wyndham or IHG Sheraton sound enticing?
How about La Quinta Inns, a vision of Four Points?
Starwood Hotels, everybody’s favorite darling at the high end hotel market segment, apparently has its investors, who are seeking higher returns, rumbling for a change. This discontent is fueling talks of Starwood Hotels merging with Wyndham Worldwide or InterContinental Hotels Group, two global chains who could benefit from more high-end hotels. Or maybe even Blackstone Group can take over Starwood Hotels, like they did with Hilton and La Quinta for great return on investment.
Or Starwood Hotels could possibly buy a large mid-scale brand like La Quinta to expand growth quickly.
Instead, we get Starwood’s Tribute band as the major noise of the week. I mean Tribute hotel brand.
Skift.com has a good read from Tara Lachapelle of Bloomberg –
Starwood Shareholders Agitate for a Merger or a Buyout as Growth Lags (April 17)
Bloomberg analysts see little upward momentum in Starwood Hotels stock for 2015. Analysts see Starwood as too high-end hotel heavy at a time when growth is in the mid-scale market. Hotel brands like Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express open several new hotels every week.
Analysts see Starwood Hotels future as either an acquisition of a mid-level market segment hotel brand or a buy out by an investment firm or a merger with a chain like Wyndham, or UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group for a tax inversion benefit.
Starwood Hotels was my hotel chain darling for years, but the past few years I find better value with other hotel chains. The promotions from SPG have been relatively weak, the benefits heavily favor top elites and the reward price has increased greatly for hotels over the past decade while the earning opportunities have declined from hotel stay promotions.
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