Vince Chan

Someone claimed that W brand was born from Westin, and Jw Marriott and W hotel are competing in the same market.

Are those 2 statement true?

spgplat21

No. Great questions.

khabah

*grabs Flyertalk-branded popcorn*

khabah

DELee

Uh, no. Best evidence using web searches indicate that W brand was evolved from the launch of the W New York as a branded boutique hotel within Starwood. Marriott puts JW in "Classic Luxury" and while W is upscale as well (marketed as a "Distinctive Luxury") it is clearly marketed as a more lifestyle brand.

David

Antarius

I mean, they compete in the sense that they are both higher end properties catering to wealthier patrons.

by that metric, both compete with the RC, StR etc too.

C17PSGR

yes but .... the JW doesnt compete with the let's sneak 8 people into a room with a cooler market ... the W does

Horace

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. launched W Hotels in 1998 as its first entirely new brand. Starwood had acquired Westin in in 1994.

1998 was also the year that Starwood acquired Sheraton, Four Points, and The Luxury Collection from ITT Sheraton.

It's easy to read the name W as a hip offshoot of the name Westin, but that's not the published explanation. The press release announcing W Hotels on April 2, 1998, had this explanation of the name, quoting Barry Sternlicht, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Starwood Hotels & Resorts:

As for the W name, Sternlicht explains, "W is for witty, warm, wonderful. Essentially, it is for 'wonder why no one has ever done this before.'"

JW Marriott, which was launched by Marriott in 1984, has some things common with with W Hotels. Notably, both are billed as luxury brands and tend to have excellent locations, primarily in city centers. JW Marriott tends to be more traditional, while the W Hotels brand seeks to provide a hip, "lifestyle" experience. Both brands avoid having over-standardized "cookie-cutter" hotels.

Both brands attract guests who are willing pay the rates that such brands charge. Someone else can chime in on whether these brands really attract significantly different kinds of customers.

C17PSGR

Or for Barry .... who is/was also the Chairman of Starwood Capital, it was a new Way to develop a market for buildings that could be sold to investors in to REITs managed by Starwood Capital.

joakgarp

Good question indeed. JW and W share almost almost the same rate everywhere you go if the two are in the same city but they do tend to different customers. W for the party YOLO crowd and JW for the upper middle class.

Oxon Flyer

As the (rather leftfield, again) OPs question has been answered, we’ll close the thread at this point.