Newsmaker: Starwood Taps Marx To Lead W's Ops.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has named 30-year lodging industry veteran Steve Marx senior vice president of hotel operations for its W Hotels brand. Acknowledging the importance of fashion and lifestyle marketing to such a brand as W, Starwood also has named a longtime Polo and Ralph Lauren executive, Ross Klein, as W's chief marketing officer.

Given the recent growth in the number of boutique hotels, coupled with the downturn in the economy and decline in business travel, boutique hotels generally have undergone reexamination in the past year and, in some cases, retrenchment. Marx, in fact, joins Starwood from the Boutique Hotel Group, a New York-based collection of small upscale hotels that was sold and disbanded last fall. Marx had been president and COO.

Fashions change and what started out as hip and novel quickly can appear passé to boutique hotels' core target market, young business travelers. In announcing the Marx-Klein appointments, Starwood chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht referred to such shifting tastes. "When we opened our first W less than five years ago, we were confident the unique style and substance would resonate with a segment of travelers." Fast forward to the present, and there are now 17 Ws open and three under construction in Mexico City, Seoul and Montreal. "We needed to recruit executives who are creative and willing to push the envelope a bit," Sternlicht said, calling Marx and Klein innovators who could enhance W's particular take on the market.

Stepping away from the boutique label, Marx said the term implied something small and intimate in a European sense. "Some of our hotels, by contrast, are quite large and fun places to be."

Looking to the future, Marx could see the brand expanding into resorts. "In a couple of the opportunities we are considering, the hotel would have more meeting space than W's normally have. This would allow us to do small, upscale group business, which we know there's a demand for. We just haven't been able to serve it up to now," he said.

Earlier in his career, Marx was a vice president of Kimpton Hotels, a San Francisco-based company that many in the industry consider the originator of the boutique concept. Also on his résumé are stints at Loews Hotels and Hilton Hotels.

Klein, who has no lodging industry experience, has served in marketing roles for Jones Apparel Group, Joe Boxer and Liz Claiborne in addition to Polo and Ralph Lauren. Further indicating the importance Starwood places on sustaining the growth of the W brand through marketing, Klein reports directly to Sternlicht. Marx reports to COO Robert Cotter.