I think that St Regis is perceived as a high-end brand in the US, but less so elsewhere.

It is a small part of the giant Starwood hotel enterprise and, therefore, tends to exploit economies of scale and does not, therefore, have a quality, high-end attitude to F&B, but seems to offer a generic culinary style that is (wrongly) perceived to work in whichever location. This may work with the US market, but does not translate, say, to properties in Asia or Europe, where very high standards of food appreciation and knowledge exist.

I also find huge disparities between service levels in their various properties. Sometimes training is very good (St Regis New York) whist other times it is abysmal (St Regis Singapore).

Don't forget that the London Lanesborough (A St Regis Hotel) was created by Rosewood. St Regis just took over the management contract and carried on doing the same thing. The St Regis brand is popular, however, with hotel owners as it has such strong marketing clout, which explains why owners such as William Heinecke in Thailand is building a St Regis right next door to his existing Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok.

A much more interesting high-end brand, IMHO, is Taj. Since New York hotelier, Raymond Bickson, took over the leadership of Taj 6 years ago, the group has gone from strength to strength. The portfolio is a scary mix of budget and very high-end properties, but Taj seems to have rationalised that pretty well and has hired exactly the right people to run each section of the group. The result is that the high-end properties are gradually becoming some of the best hotels in the world. In the US, only The Pierre NY has, at this stage, benefited from a major refurbishment, but in India, numerous properties have been completely re-thought and everything, from food to service has improved 500%. I expect this to gradually roll out into the rest of the world, which we are already seeing with the soon to open Taj Cape Town, which is a truly spectacular product.