Starwood Resort and Hotel

Starwood Resort and Hotel

Starwood Resort and Hotel

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is a group of hotels that consists of nine separate brands and types of hotels that are located around the world. They typically focus on the luxury and upscale portion of the full-service lodging and vacation ownership market, but also cater to a diverse group of sub-markets within this market (Harrison, 2003). The group is one of the largest hotel companies in the industry with over 750 owned, managed, and franchised properties in over 80 countries. The brands are made up of The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, and W Hotels (Lee J Krajewski, Larry P Ritzman, Manoj K Malhotra, 2010). Starwood used focus groups and made a commitment to its guests and shareholders to figure out a way to make the resorts better for conferences, banquets, conferences and just general vacations.

Starwood knew they needed to improve the consistency and efficiency of its meeting planners across all brands if they were really going to set themselves apart from the rest of the luxury hotels that they were competing against. They used focus groups that included many different meeting planners and members to figure out what was important to the end user and how to meet those needs the best. They first had to look at their inputs that were available to them and that they could build upon as a group. The first of these were their hotels and the quality of locations that they were located in around the world. With the top brands being in most of the popular spots around the world they had prime locations that travelers wanted to visit or travel too for their different functions they were wanting to do. The second of the inputs was the staff they had at the different hotels. The company takes great pride in making sure they have a trained staff that treats people with top care and expect nothing but the best from all the staff in every position no matter how small. Amenities at the different hotels is another of its inputs that help the hotel/resorts set itself apart to their guests from the competition. With most having really nice resort areas that offer a variety of activities for the guests to be involved in from lounging pool side to spas and ocean activities for all ages. With all the extras the company offers, it makes sure that everyone that comes can find something that entices them and makes the stay worthwhile. Equipment that is available for the different types of business functions is anther of the inputs that most of the brands have available to them on location. And finally, food and beverages are an important input for just about all the locations and ability to cater to large groups. The outputs that tie in with the meeting planner’s process are the business conferences they host to many companies from around