Announcing SPG’s 10th brand – Tribute Portfolio
 

Hello everyone,

There have been whispers within this forum for some time, and today we are pleased to be able to officially announce our 10th brand – Tribute Portfolio. The idea for this new brand actually comes from our members and forums like this – we know you are always looking for unique experiences and also want more places to take advantage of SPG.

This new brand will unite exceptional, 4 star, upper upscale independent hotels and resorts around the world. When joining the brand each hotel’s independent spirit will be retained, and because of this each will be quite different - except when it comes to inspired style, superior service and of course SPG benefits. You’ll be able to earn points, redeem points and receive your elite benefits just as you do at our other nine brands.

The first Tribute Portfolio is the Royal Palm South Beach Miami. Destinations coming soon include Savannah, GA; Nashville, TN; Charleston, SC and Asheville, NC, with more to be announced soon.

To celebrate our 10th brand we’ve created a promotion where you can earn up to 10k bonus Starpoints. It’s 2k bonus Starpoints per stay (up to five stays) at Tribute Portfolio hotels between now and July 15th. Right now Royal Palm South Beach Miami is the only hotel, but others may join before the promotion ends. You can register and get more information at spg.com/tributeportfolio.

You can also learn more about Tribute Portfolio at tributeportfolio.com. Looking forward to hearing more from each of you in regards to what you’d like to see from the brand and where you’d like to see the brand!

Best regards,

Alice Kons
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

What's Starwood's intention with Design Hotels? It would seem like a lot of soft brands. Would some of the current Design Hotels members join Tribute? Because in terms of where I would like to see a Tribute hotel I would look no further than some of the Design Hotels destinations.

Thanks for the announcement but would seem better to have a promo sometime in the future when there is more than just one hotel in the brand. Has there ever been a Starwood wide promo with only one hotel participating?
Hardly seems like a great motivator to promote the brand as it is basically just promoting the James Hotel in Miami Beach.

Love this! Exactly the type of niche I think Starwood was lacking. Assuming of course you add enough hotels to this category in areas where it is needed.

This thinking is exactly the kind that Starwood is trying to fight against

For example, Charleston, SC has become one of the most desired destinations in the US, with its Southern charm and excellent restaurants. Tourists are flocking to Charleston in droves.

Currently, Starwood only has a small aloft in the area (actually North Charleston). Meanwhile Hilton have five hotels and Marriott has four in Charleston proper.

This brand will help Starwood catch up in places like Charleston.

Cities like Charleston and Savannah are logical places to start as there are mostly independent hotels in the historic centers. This is an easy way for Starwood to gain a foothold without having to get the hotel do a complete rebrand.

The event I'm attending tonight is re: this new brand. I guess I'll report back tomorrow.

Hi Xiaotung,

We are in the process of determining the business model of Design Hotels; however, we know it will continue to operate as an independent unit and will not be folded into Starwood’s existing operations.

Best regards,

Alexandra (Sandi) Baker
Specialist, Social Media
Starwood Hotels and Resorts

[email protected]

So am I reading this correctly then to say that Design Hotels will not at any point in the near future have any participation in the SPG program?

See you there!

Well, that was disappointing. I hope there will be some new Tribute hotels in Europe soon, too.

Slightly off topic, but a WSJ article today talked about how the hotels participating in this new brand will pay Starwood affiliation fees (still much less than travel agents, etc).
http://www.wsj.com/articles/starwood...oup-1429142581

So I found it amusing that "Tribute" brand has a double meaning of the fees one had to pay to be part of the Roman empire...

There still may be some properties in the Design group that ultimately decide to join SPG as part of the Tribute Portfolio or Luxury Collection, although it seems that Starwood has elected to not press for all of them to fold into SPG as we may have preferred. It's new, so let's give it some time.

Given the proposed portfolio shouldn't the brand have been called "yee hah!"?

Do we know about Elite benefits? Will Plats get breakfast, 4 pm checkout, upgrades, etc.