Originally Posted by bgriff

Part of the answer is that the W brand was kicked off in somewhat of a rush with on-the-cheap "renovations" of existing properties, many of them low end. The original W New York was famous for small rooms and thin walls, for example, and I think had been a Days Inn or something equally inauspicious before. So as the brand got more established and tried to move a bit upscale, there was a push to clear out some of those early properties that weren't in line with the later properties that were built more intentionally.