Originally Posted by
BrightlyBob
What I think Marriott fails to recognise is whilst in North America the flagship full service brands, Marriott, Sheraton, Renaissance and Westin hotels have been built to a pretty vanilla 3.5*, outside the US they’re frequently 5*, and hence brand uniformity will either result in cuts internationally or improvements stateside. I guess Marriotts following the cutting route - shock, horror!
I think you are failing to realize that while newer hotels built in Asia and elsewhere outside N America can often be nicer, they rarely are 5* as you’re pretending here. Yes, newer properties are nicer, and Asia, in particular, has a host of newer full service Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, and even Marriott hotels compared with the older builds in N. America—because there simply is more new construction in less expensive Asia. But those are rarely 5* as you’re claiming. Hyperbole doesn’t strengthen your argument, I’m afraid.
N American full service hotels get renovated and refurbished eventually. It’s more expensive to do that here and in Europe than it is in Asia, of course.
Most of these hotels are 3.5 or 4 star hotels. There is a small number of 4.5 almost 5 star hotels. There are very few proper 5 star hotels among those brands.
This also has nothing to do with the name of the new loyalty program.