Bartels, Danziger Play Musical Corner Offices

<B> Bartels, Danziger Play Musical Corner Offices</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

Starwood Hotels & Resorts' acquisition of Westin and ITT Corp. has some top executives reshuffling at Starwood and Carlson Hospitality Worldwide.

Newest Carlson executive Eric Danziger left his presidential suite at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide more than a week before the ITT acquisition to become president of Carlson Hotels, a newly created position. Filling the vacant Starwood office is former Westin CEO Juergen Bartels--ironically a former Carlson Hospitality CEO--who will become Starwood's CEO.

Starwood real estate investment trust CEO Barry Sternlicht tapped Bartels to lead the management of Starwood's hotel chain portfolio, including Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis and a new brand yet to be announced (See story, page 1). Analysts attributed to Bartels much of the credit for Westin repeatedly winning first place in the upscale category of BTN's annual hotel chain survey (See story, page 44).

On Bartel's agenda is a plan to take advantage of the Asian financial crisis. "Asia is our number one opportunity because while the value of real estate and hotel investments has gone down, it's a unique time to purchase portions of hotels," he said. "Now we can afford to do that." That's one advantage of the switch from a private to a public firm, with its deeper financial backing. "The growth we had at Westin, we created, and we didn't get any cash injection," Bartels said. "This new company will have a lot of power, with money that we didn't have before."

Danziger, who will be responsible for the Regent, Radisson and Country Inns & Suites brands, was persuaded to join the company by Carlson Hospitality CEO Curtis Nelson. In reality, Danziger needed little wooing after he recognized similar cultural and business values 17 months ago when he attended a Carlson dinner meeting, he said.

Danziger based his decision primarily on Carlson's traditions of loyalty, internal promotions and familial ties. Knowing he eventually would have to move away from his Phoenix home if he stayed at Starwood also played a role. In earlier negotiations during the birth of Starwood, Danziger agreed to accept his former position if the company would move to Phoenix.

While Carlson Hospitality plans to open 400 hotels by the end of 2000, Danziger noted that unlike Starwood, it will grow through a combination of building and acquisition. About half the hotels will be Radissons, 45 percent Country Inn & Suites and 5 percent Regents. New development primarily will involve Regents and Country Inns. "Carlson is not going to be nearly the real estate owner Starwood is," he said. "If Starwood wanted a hotel, it bought one."

Danziger's role at Carlson will be different as well. When he first joined Starwood, it had less than 30 hotels and 11 people. "Most of what I did at Starwood was starting the company from scratch," Danziger said. "Here, it's perpetuating a culture that already exists, growing the business, but in a different way.