One year later, and Starwood completely redoes New York City

What a difference a year makes.

When I was at Cornell last year, I spent my weekdays hunched over a desk flipping through textbooks and killing time on Facebook when I should have been cramming for exams. Come weekends though, I made the trek to NYC from Ithaca, and after a 5+ hour drive

including bridge and tunnel traffic into Manhattan (myself included), I would check into the not quite glorious but comfortable Four Points Times Square on 40th between 8th and 9th.

Now look what the new kids escaping from Cornell on the weekends get to stay in. This year Starwood opens up nearly 2,000 new rooms in 6 brand spanking new hotels in NYC, including the following in order of my would be favorites if I were still there:

• W New York Downtown – August 1
• Element New York Times Square West – October 14
• Aloft Harlem – October 15
• Aloft Brooklyn – October 21
• Sheraton Tribeca – November 11
• Four Points Long Island City – October 21

You’ll notice that Aloft and Element make their debut in the big apple.

With these additions, Starwood is actually opening up more hotels in NYC than in any other city in the world. I thought China would have taken the cake here, but it looks like NYC comes out on top and 75% of the Starwoods there will be either brand new or completely renovated come 2011. According to analysts, these new builds will contribute one out of every four newly opened rooms of all the new hotels coming live in NYC this year. Is that bullish or what?

Double Starpoints, morning dim sum, and 4pm late checkout at Chinese Le Meridiens

 

Starwood’s making another push to build the Le Meridien brand in China.  These days, you can get double Starpoints, complimentary breakfast, and my favorite Starwood perk of all . . . 4pm late check out.  The catch is you gotta stay for at least two nights.  Click the link below for more details and make sure you travel before October 7, 2010.  Looks like rates are refundable, but check the T&C yourself.

 

http://www.starwoodasiapacificpromot…mo/china/july

Here’s the list of participating Le Meridien’s . . .

Le Méridien Chongqing, Nan’an
Le Méridien Cyberport, Hong Kong
Le Méridien Qingdao
Le Méridien She Shan Shanghai
Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa, Hainan
Le Méridien Xiamen
Le Royal Méridien Shanghai

Starwood’s new SPG Rewarding Returns promotion is live, but you can’t please everyone

Starwood’s SPG loyalty program just kicked off another new promotion called SPG Rewarding Returns.

There are a number of different variations of the promotion, and to access them you’ll need to input your SPG number and register. Basically, after five completed stays between July 1 and December 31, this is what you get to choose from:

4,000 Bonus Starpoints

With Free Night Awards starting at 2,000 Starpoints at Category 1 properties, you’ll already have enough for a night away

$50 Award Certificate

Redeem for on-property indulgences during your next stay, including spa treatments, room service and more.

An earned Award Certificate will be mailed 4–6 weeks after fifth eligible stay to the shipping address we have on file in your SPG profile.

25% Off Redemption

Get away sooner using fewer Starpoints. Take 25% off a Free Night Award redemption of up to five nights at any Category 1–5 property. Redemption must be used by 7/31/11.

Don’t forget you need to complete five stays before the end of the year to receive the award you choose. I think it’s great that Starwood lets you choose the type of promotion that best suits your desires, although the strength of the promotions are not the best we’ve seen from SPG. Still nice to have though!

Too bad this guy below doesn’t seem to feel the same (from FlyerTalk).  You just can’t please everyone  . . .

New Starwood Hotels Plus website ventures into the turf of online travel agencies (e.g. Expedia)

In the ongoing battle for customer loyalty between branded hotel websites and the online travel agencies (e.g. Expedia or Orbitz), Starwood Hotels has hit a new milestone with its new Starwood Hotels Plus website.

The new site allows guests to book packages that bundle together hotel rooms with air flights, car rentals, both, or even destination activities.  Keep in mind though that the hotel inventory that this hotel pulls is strictly limited to Starwood’s portfolio of hotels.

Rumor has it that as an added incentive to drive customer booking loyalty to Starwood’s branded websites, SPG members get bonus 500 Starpoints for each night they book through this new Starwood Hotels Plus booking channel.

I took this baby for a test drive search that included the Room + Air combination.  You can see in the search results screenshot below that Starwood hotels show up without a problem, but my concern is that the air selection is quite limited in this example.  Going from Singapore to San Francisco, I would imagine the cheapest flights would be on United or Cathay Pacific . . . but Delta?  I think not, but it was the top search result for flights.  Perhaps the air partnerships that Starwood has in place are more geared towards US domestic travel, but I highly doubt that Starwood has anything equivalent to the vast inventory Expedia or other online travel agencies have.

Even if this new Starwood Hotels Plus website isn’t the most robust at the moment, its introduction still marks a significant and symbolic move for a hotel company to venture into online dynamic packaging of rooms and flights . . . and I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Typically hotels use dynamic packaging to conceal deeply discounted rates.  The consumer (and the hotel’s competitors) can’t tell how much the hotel is discounting its rates because they are bundled in with the airline ticket.  I’m curious whether Starwood would then use this site as a means to disguise distressed inventory rates and push occupancy over hotels’ need dates.  It’s possible then that you could get hotel rates lower than online published best available rates, but you’d have to some hefty homework to figure that out.

In case you missed it, Google just bought ITA Software for $700 million.  This is Google’s biggest move to bolster its competencies in online travel.