dw

Looks like the new "independent" brand (like Marriott's Autograph Collection and Hilton's Curio) is going to be called "Tribute", and indeed the Royal Palm in South Beach us going to be the first property.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/starwood...1?mod=yahoo_hs

(The link requires a subscription, but you can google it in incognito mode to read it without one)

makin'miles

Very interesting - I wonder if/how many Design Hotels properties might be rolled into Tribute.

Not sure if I love the name, though.

chad75

Hopefully they've already signed up quite a few hotels for the new brand.

Good timing for whoever becomes the new CEO.

If it's a flop: "Well that was project commenced by my predecessor etc etc"
If a success: "Well that was a project that commenced at the start of my tenure and I'm very pleased etc etc"

Johnny Rocket

Very interesting idea to compete with Hilton's Curio and Mariott's Autograph.

I kind of wish they'd have just bought Kimpton though rather than have some other batch of hotels that don't quite under the Luxury Collection umbrella or wish to be rebranded as a W or Westin!

Xiaotung

I was thinking the same. Previous indication was this new brand sits in between Luxury Collection and the newly acquired Design Hotels. Does it mean Design Hotels will be brand #11? Or will members of the Design Hotels have the option to take the Tribute brand?

Johnny Rocket

Exactly - Tribute is the name that's being given for the Design Hotels

davidw70

I very much doubt this as the WSJ article refers to 100 Tribute Portfolio hotels by 2020 (and there are far more Design Hotels than this).

There's now a development page on the Starwood web site with logo and confirmation about the Royal Palm:
http://development.starwoodhotels.co...bute_portfolio

Xiaotung

http://www.spgpromos.com/tributeportfolio/

Celebrate Tribute Portfolio with 10,000 Starpoints. Link doesn't appear live yet.

EuropeanPete

The 100 number is interesting.

I can't imagine anywhere near that many new hotels being built or acquired in 4.5 years, so most must come from the existing Starwood/ design portfolio.

There are a certain number of existing SPG hotels which you could move over. Maybe ~10 Luxury Collection and an unknown number of hotels that don't quite fit in their existing brand. That would still leave you quite short.

Does this mean that some of the Design hotels would move into the "standard" SPG portfolio? Does anyone have any other potential scenarios?

sfozrhfco

The whole point of the brand is to NOT have to build or acquire any hotels. It is simply offering independent hotels a soft brand to keep their own identity while gaining many of the same benefits of being a "name brand." Thus Starwood simply has to negotiate with existing hotels as to how much money they would be giving Starwood in exchange for getting into SPG and the Starwood distribution and marketing network.

For clarity, Design Hotels as it currently stands is NOT a brand and was not a brand before Starwood acquired the company. It is simply a company that provides ad hoc services with the hotels being promoted and rooms sold through the designhotels.com website. They can also help with PR and yield management, etc but it is entirely up to the hotel as to which services they choose to pay for and which they simply do in house.

Starwood has already announced that they would like to work with at least some of the hotels currently being marketed through designhotels.com and bring them closer into the Starwood fold--but Tribute would not be limited to those hotels. Any place that Starwood wanted to increase their presence which had an independent hotel which fit the new bar for joining Tribute would be a potential candidate for the new brand.

Of course in the future, some company could also build an independent hotel and negotiate with Starwood to join Tribute as well but I doubt that will be the focus for the short term as it is far easier and quicker to ramp up the number of hotels in the brand by negotiating with existing owners--or hotels that are at least close to being opened.

Xiaotung

Sounds like Design Hotels is just an online travel agent. I wonder what Starwood gains if it is not integrated into the SPG ecosystem.

steppie

Great location...... rooms small , service excellent ,already booked with points over Christmas!

hillrider

Tribute looks like a distribution platform: you give us 10% (or whatever) of the revenue, and we fill your rooms (through our wide distribution, corporate pull, strength of SPG, marketing to SPG members, etc. etc.).

I hope that they have instituted some strong brand minimums (minimum amenities, training etc.) even though they seem to be a bit more "loose" with this "independent" set-up.

hillrider

Link working now. Extra Starpoints are for staying at a Tribute before 15 July.

Am I the only one that doesn't find any of the above destinations "exciting"?

Is Tribute a brand for the U.S. Southeast? Weird.

EuropeanPete

Thanks for the clarification.

If that does mean 100 new boutique 4/5* Starwood hotels around the world assuming full membership of SPG then that would be fantastic news for me. I was beginning to run low on appealing Luxury Collections to go to.