Originally Posted by jgold
Just to go one step further, to classify this hotel as a Luxury property is make meaningless the entire category. It was not a particularly special or nice hotel, and in fact, had quite a few negatives (confusing layout, small rooms, etc.). Yes, it has a good location, but surely that can't make it a "Luxury" property.
Luxury is one of the most overused words in the travel industry. Personally, I don't think it has any particularly specific meaning any more; Starwood's use of it seems well within the bounds of what you typically see. I can think of many hotels that would be unequivocally considered "luxury", but which have small rooms and/or are located in historic buildings with somewhat confusing layouts.