James Luckard

I think Century Park was a company that partnered with Sheraton on two hotels, this and the Century Park Sheraton Manila. They have had many of these through the years, where the partner's name is part of the name. There were all the ArabellaSheraton hotels in Europe for years, the ANA-Sheraton in Osaka, the Welcomgroup Sheratons in India, the Sheraton Moriah hotels in Israel, there was even a Four Seasons Sheraton for a few years in Toronto in the 70s.

None of these were separate brands, they were just joint ventures.

3rdworldresident

personally I thought Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit is MUCH BETTER than any sheraton-branded hotels and it deserves to be a Luxury collection property.

I would be sad to see it leave the LC folio and become just a Sheraton-Grand-branded hotel .

James Luckard

It's also entirely possible they might leave it in both groups for a while. For a few years a number of the old CIGA properties in Europe were in both Westin and The Luxury Collection simultaneously, before Starwood settled on which brand to put them in.

khabah

I remember reading quite a bit about the Four Seasons Sheraton in Toronto. I also lived in Germany when ArabellaSheraton existed and India while the ITC Welcomgroup franchise was active and remember seeing the Sheraton Moriah properties in Israel in the early 2000s.

James, you are a wealth of information. Thank you for your contributions and for enlightening us with all these little historical tidbits!

khabah

bhrubin

I disagree completely. I like this approach of creating a "Grand" tier in the Sheraton brand. First, it assures you of the Sheratons that are truly meeting the Sheraton brand standard at the highest level, something that isn't usually obvious today. Second, it rewards those properties that are of the highest standard. Third, it encourages other Sheraton owners to upgrade their facilities and refurbish as necessary--something that too many USA Sheratons desperately require. Finally, it encourages other Sheraton owners to increase pressure on the service at their properties to achieve the Grand designation.

I find the new designation to be highly motivating for owners--both to continue refurbishing and maintain high service levels and to encourage others regular Sheratons to strive to do the same to achieve the Grand moniker.

bhrubin

Sheratons overseas are, for the most part, newer--so they have always had a leg up on the older USA Sheratons. It is going to make sure that Grand properties are refurbished and fresh and having good service. Basically, achieving the highest level of the Sheraton brand standard.

The Grand designation isn't going to make any Sheraton fancy like a JW Marriott. JW Marriotts are more comparable in service and facilities to LM/W and nicer Westins for the most part. JW Marriotts strive to be akin to St. Regis, but that's never happened IMO.

KENNECTED

Are you saying Starwood should make a separate brand with the "grand(e)" properties?

JW Marriott is a separate Marriott brand or are you thinking of the Marriott Marquis properties, which are a brand extension of Marriott Hotels?

If you mean the latter, that makes sense to me.

James Luckard

Thanks! I've been collecting Sheraton brochures since I was a little kid, in 1984, when all the hotels used to have huge racks of brochures, which were like catnip to a kid. I now have thousands of brochures, both current (aided by emailing) and dating back to the beginning of the chain (aided by eBay). So I've followed Sheraton from one chain to the creation of its modern child brands - Four Points, The Luxury Colection, St. Regis, and now Sheraton Grand.

James Luckard

I think it'll take a couple of years at least to see what they really want to do with Sheraton Grand. When I was a kid, the JW Marriott in Washington DC was simply the flagship Marriott hotel. As I remember, it wasn't turned into a brand for a number of years. And Marriott Marquis was also just two hotels in Atlanta and NY, it took a while to morph into a proper designation.

I agree though, I don't think Sheraton Grand will ever be a full separate brand like JW Marriott has become, I tend to think it will be more like Marriott Marquis has become, a group within a brand. I don't think they'll remove the Sheraton Grand hotels from the main Sheraton directory on the website, for example.

Dr. HFH

Four Seasons Sheraton? In Toronto?? Toronto is home to Four Seasons and was the site of the original Four Seasons Hotel when Mr. Sharp started the company.

James Luckard

The Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel was a joint venture between Issy Sharp and Sheraton from 1972-1976. It was before there was a Four Seasons chain. It's now called the Sheraton Centre Toronto:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherat..._Toronto_Hotel

MrTemporal

+1

I completely agree. Too many levels is just confusing to the customer. I don't care what level a hotel is on if the room is stuffy and the halls smell of cleaning fluids.

UA-NYC

Since there will likely only be a limited % of Sheratons that become Grand (less they dilute the new super-brand), I doubt that the mass group of regular Sheratons would feel incented to refurbish, or to better the service.

IMO, Grand does nothing for the ~90% of Sheratons that will stay regular Sheratons.

James Luckard

It says they intend to have 50 Sheraton Grands within the next four months, and 100 by early 2017. I can't believe they'll take on that many new hotels, I think most will be rehabs of existing Sheratons.

http://skift.com/2015/08/19/starwood...overall-brand/

bhrubin

I disagree.

Having Grand Hyatt hasn't diluted the Hyatt brand any more than having Sheraton Grand will dilute the Sheraton brand. If anything, it gives Sheraton some needed resuscitation to complement the Sheraton 2020 plan.

One of the problems for Starwood branding is that there are no "Starwood" hotels...unlike with Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt. Subsets of the major Starwood brands is therefore more important for brand identity and marketing than it is for those peers. There's a reason that Doubletree and EmbassySuites have added the "by Hilton" designation. More people respond to a name they know (as well as trust). And whether we want to admit it or not, more people respond to "Grand" and "Marquis" and "Royal" too.

In the years to come, those Sheraton properties that distinguish themselves both in terms of better refurbishment and high service levels will be able to join the Sheraton Grand club. Those properties will provide better assurance of higher quality, and that is a strong encouragement for many Sheraton property owners...even beyond whatever strictures Starwood places on Sheraton as a whole as part of its 2020 plan.

Not every Sheraton will become Grand. But having a goal for a certain proportion of Sheratons to be Grand gives Starwood important yardsticks for improvement. Obviously, any Sheratons in the USA that improve and gain the Grand moniker will be a welcome sight. If they don't improve sufficiently or aren't located in the appropriate locations to qualify for Grand, they still have goals for improvement. That's a win for everyone.

I'm amazed at the negative perceptions of the Sheraton Grand moniker. I will appreciate knowing that a certain Sheraton property is among the top rung of the Sheraton properties. That is in no way obvious today. That will be more obvious tomorrow...and in the coming years.

Change is the only constant. Starwood is making a nice change that bodes well IMO.