Whitbread, the UK leisure group, yesterday declined to comment on reports of a hostile takeover bid by Starwood Capital, the US real estate investment firm that owns the Sheraton and Westin hotel brands. Whitbread began a review of its business earlier this year, and is set to sell its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre chains.

Source: The Independant, London


Any implications for Marriott's UK hotels?

I would think that whatever those implications would be they wouldn't come into play until the expiration of Whitbred's franchise agreement with Marriott/Renaissance comes into play. And even then, it might well be transparent.

Of course, you would also have to factor in whatever designs Starwood would have as to expanding their presence in the United Kingdom.

Interestingly, Marriott (don't know if it's Host or the Family Trust) has a substantial interest in a competitor on Maui, the Hyatt Regency and Hyatt's been franchising it to them for a substantial number of years since acquiring it. It's been a Hyatt since the time of its construction by developer Chris Hemmeter.

Adding:

Further research indicates that whatever Starwood's planning w/regards to Whitbread it will have no effect because Whitbread has previously divested themselves of their Marriott holdings.

From BBC News, 10/24/06- headlined


"The company has undergone a major restructuring. In April this year the group sold its luxury Marriott hotels business to the Royal Bank of Scotland for �951.4m to concentrate on its more lucrative budget hotels."

In context: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6080070.stm

Host Hotels & Resorts (Richard Marriott is Chairman) purchased the Hyatt a few years back however the hotel is not a franchise...it is still run by Hyatt

Whitbread sold their Marriott flagged hotels a little while ago

Starwood Capital is not Starwood Hotels Worldwide, Inc. (but I believe Sternlich is CEO)

My bad.

My intention was to post that it was owned by (old name) Host Marriott; managed by Hyatt as an example two (essentially) competing entities collaborating.

(As an outsider I tend to think of Host & Marriott Intl. collectively as "Marriott".)

BTW, for my edification - regarding ..."however the hotel is not a franchise...it is still run by Hyatt." begs a question.

If "X" Hotel Corp. owns a property that's flagged as a Marriott FS and Marriott Intl. is managing it, if "franchise" is not correct insofar as describing the property what terminology would be correct?

I kind of chuckled when I saw your comment about viewing HMT & MI as the same...for many years after MI was spun off from HMT it was viewed that way internally too however the need came on both sides for more distance...Bill resigned from HMT's board and Richard resigned from MI's board, HMT was renamed etc....much has happened over the past 5-6 years during which time Host has expanded their portfolio to include many other brands so while they share the same heritage they are vastly different companies today

For many years hotels have typically been investments for organizations, these organizations hire professional management companies to run them. They can choose to hire the brand as their operator or they can hire a franchise company...just because Host Marriott owns NY Marquis doesn't make it a franchised hotel-Marriott International does run the building, they have been hired to do so and will do as they best see fit, it is only considered a franchise should someone other than the brand run it, ie. Interstate Hotels is a very large hotel company but they are not a brand, the Marriott Hiltons Doubletrees etc Interstate runs are franchises...as a side note: I haven't seen the latest on this stat but MI typically owns less than 10 hotels in a given year (the family owns more than the company does) but manages quite a few (I know both stats are in the annual report but sorry I'm too tired to go look it up tonight)

Managed by the brand (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt etc) = corporate run
Managed by someone other than the brand (Interstate, Davidson, Columbia Sussex etc) = franchise