Starwood's Sheraton Brand To Undergo A Nearly $4 Billion Upgrade
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts soon will begin an almost $4 billion makeover, including renovations, new properties and other initiatives.
During the next several years, the upscale brand, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, plans to invest $1.3 billion for renovation of 50,000 guest rooms and the redesign of more than 100 new lobbies. Sheraton vice president Hoyt Harper II said the renovations are being done with corporate travelers in mind.
"Corporate travel is critical to us, and our initiatives are significantly focused on attracting and retaining corporate travel buyers," Harper said. "We did extensive research on what we need to do to increase the amount of loyalty from business travelers, and the number-one factor was consistency."
Elements of the new room design include movable desk space, flat-screen televisions and a charging station for guests' electronics. The bathrooms will be refurbished with new lighting, a freestanding vanity and water-saving plumbing fixtures. Closets will be replaced with wood-paneled wardrobes.
"We have the highest percentage of women travelers of all the Starwood brands, and that significantly impacted our design efforts," he said. "We've moved the design head of the Westin brand to Sheraton with the mission of upgrading the quality of design work, but we want to make sure we're distinctly different from Westin."
The upgrades also will include new in-room entertainment options, Harper said, including such proprietary on-demand content as first-run television programming.
Lobby renovations will include a new communications hub with free wireless Internet access and Internet-enabled computer stations, as well as a centrally located community table for group work. "Some guests told us that they don't want to go to the room until it's time to sleep," according to Harper. Sheraton also will alter lighting and other design elements to create more of an outdoor feel.
In addition to the renovations, Starwood also plans to spend $2 billion in new hotel openings over the next few years. The brand currently has 406 hotels in 71 countries, slightly less than half of Starwood's overall portfolio of about 900 properties.
The brand's development pipeline now is the largest in its history, with 54 hotels, or 20,000 new rooms, expected to be added by 2009. This will include properties in Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., as well as Argentina, China, Egypt and Ireland.
Beyond 2008, Sheraton plans to open two new New York City properties in 2009—in Brooklyn and in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan—and will add about 70 total properties by the end of 2010, 30 of which will include spas. Global locations for new properties include Italy, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam. The plan also includes more than a half-dozen big-box properties with a large amount of meeting space, including new properties in Phoenix and Macau as well as added meeting space to the existing Dallas and Denver properties.
In an effort to ensure the brand's quality is consistent, Harper said Sheraton will remove about 33 current properties from its system by the end of next year.
"We've raised the benchmark," Harper said. "All must meet or exceed our expectations of quality and maintenance."