If the Marriott-Starwood merger comes to fruition, 19 full-service brands will overlap. When Forbes spoke to industry executives about what this would mean in terms of portfolio management, most said some brands would consolidate, change, or go away all together.
These changes could hit owners the hardest—particularly those who have both Marriott- and Starwood-branded hotels in their portfolios. The question of what happens when previously competing hotels now fall under the same corporate umbrella, or if existing management or franchise agreements will be affected, will remain unanswered until the deal goes through. In the meantime, people like Chris Green, principal, senior vice president of operations at Chesapeake Hospitality, see the merger as a new opportunity for growth, rather than a difficult adjustment.
“We’re going to need to embrace it, because it’s going to happen,” he says.
Chesapeake Hospitality manages both Marriott and Starwood brands, including Fairfield Inn Williamsburg and Sheraton Inn Fredericksburg Conference Center. The blending of the two brands, to Green, can only bring in a wider customer base.
“Although I’m not privy to the details, I would imagine Marriott acquired Starwood in search of some of its loyalty base,” he says. “Marriott, if you had to define them, is the epitome of the corporate traveler and the corporate group traveler, where Starwood is more of the experiential traveler, leaning toward the millennial traveler. When you combine that with what Starwood brings to the table, it fills in some of the gaps where Marriott may or may not have some product. So you’re going to be combining two really strong loyalty bases into one huge powerful brand.”
As an approved operator of both brands, Green does not anticipate a significant change to Chesapeake’s portfolio. As much as the brands shift and converge, he feels as though the marketing game has changed regardless of the merger.
“And with the brands adding more and more vertical scales, like Hilton and Marriott adding new brands, you’re going to need to uniquely position each hotel no matter what overriding flag that it’s under,” he says.
