Arne Sorenson, Marriott CEO, spoke to Forbes yesterday and provided updates on the combined company. Believe it or not, the CEO feels that there does not need to be any combination of brands and that 30 brands is likely not enough.
“More choice is always better for guests. The more options we can offer the less need for guests to look elsewhere for a hotel room.”
He even said that more brands are on the way as the combined company only represents 7% of global hotel room share.
The Sheraton brand was referred to as “a bit of a challenge”.
The brand wasn’t performing as well as it should have been. Starwood had at one point considered dropping Sheraton. In fact, that was still a possibility when Marriott took over but it ultimately decided to hold onto it and bring it up to standards. That meant working with owners to agree on certain upgrades that had to be made. Sorenson says he hopes to have the majority of the Sheraton brands up to par in one to two years.
On Marriott Rewards / SPG, Sorenson noted that the technology and work required for a merge was still a good year away. Interestingly, there are 99 members who hold platinum status with both SPG and Marriott Rewards.
Check out the full interview here.
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2 comments
All I care about is my Amex SPG
“There are currently 99 members who hold platinum status with both SPG and Marriott Rewards, but thousands who are staunchly loyal to SPG alone.”
Only 99 hold dual plat status? I’m so honored to be in that rare group having a status match.
That figure seems unrealistic. Are they missing several zeros in that headcount? What does the thousands staunchly loyal to SPG mean? That the millions of us linked and/or joined MR too? It sounds like MR is tracking both user sides for activity and brand loyalty.
I’m 15 SPG nights from SPG plat for life; will hit 795 nights this month. The real question is: what MR will do with the lifetime status (gold and plat) for SPG members?
Regarding Sheraton, one of them in the SF/Bay Area was recently sold and getting re-flagged as Marriott AC in 11/2017. Marriott AC = No lounge; No shuttle van; No room service. Less staff to support the self-serve trend; auto check-in/out.