I'm not sure where this fits in the scheme of the Marriott/Starwood forums, so I'm starting it off as a new thread and will see where others/the mods take it.
Many of us legacy SPG folk have a familiarity with The Luxury Collection as being a literal collection of luxury-level properties with independent identities sharing a common, relatively loose brand that permitted said identities to shine through while conforming to some semblance of unified brand standards. Hilton has recently launched/revived the LXR brand and is positioning it as a luxury-level brand of independent properties in the 'luxury' tier as opposed to Curio Collection's positioning in the 'upper upscale' tier and Tapestry playing in the 'upscale-upper upscale' tier. Essentially, what they've done is mimic Marriott with the following:
- The Luxury Collection - LXR
- Autograph Collection - Curio
- Tribute Portfolio - Tapestry
When looking at the below screenshot I just captured on Hilton's website based on the recent launch of a dedicated website for LXR, my read of LXR is that it is a rather shameless rip-off of The Luxury Collection, and LXR's verbiage of 'a luxury collection' of hotels reminds me of the snafu when Hilton launched their ill-fated Denizen brand in 2009 and it turned out to be an exercise in corporate espionage and leaked trade secrets molded off of Starwood's W brand.
Is this a matter of time before Marriott pipes up and rips Hilton over it à la Denizen, or is this all's fair in [competition] love and war? Would be interesting to know what you guys think or make of it.
khabah
