Prevue November/December 2014 - (Page 14)

fresh meets The Evolution of Starwood Starwood's portfolio is steadily becoming a global knowledge-sharing platform or meeting. For meeting planners who are unable to redeem their rewards for themselves, they can give them to VIP clients and stakeholders in the form of free room nights and room upgrades. THE FUTURE OF STARWOOD Hoyt Harper, Sheraton GM Conference T his past September, Starwood Hotels & Resorts held its annual Rendezvous buyer/supplier trade show at the Sheraton Boston Hotel where they announced the launch of a new B2B loyalty program, SPG Pro. The program affords meeting planners the same loyalty upgrades and perks that many of their clients and bosses enjoy. The motivation behind this initiative was two-fold. B2B bookings are major business, accounting for 70 percent of Starwood's overall room occupancy. Also, 34 percent of Starwood's SPG Platinum loyalty members, who are often business executives, book meetings and events in hotels. However, Starwood was only capturing 40% of that business. Now with SPG Pro, planners and non-planners can earn one eligible night for every 20 room nights they book, up to a maximum of 20 nights per meeting. They can reach Gold status with just 25 eligible nights and Platinum status with 50 nights in a calendar year. In addition, planners earn one Starpoint for every $3 in eligible spend, up to a maximum of 20,000 Starpoints per event The Starwood portfolio is evolving into a global knowledgesharing platform, with system-wide communications to develop and share best practices. "Agile is the new smart," Starwood CEO Frits Van Paasschen told us. "We're much better off creating optionality and building ﬂexibility into how we work, since I couldn't tell you 10 years from now what this Gen Z group is really going to want in a hotel." We also talked with Van Paasschen about two of the brand's successful lobby concepts-The Link at Sheraton Hotels and The Hub at Le Meridien Hotels-and how they're continuing to evolve for group networking. Both are positioned as knowledge-sharing environments designed to inspire collaboration and co-creation with innovative media, programming and room architecture. "The whole notion of The Link or The Hub is this recognition that we travel differently than how we traveled 20 years ago," said Van Paasschen. "What I think is so interesting about the hotel business is it's really a microcosm of life-how it's so seamless in the sense that we have access to information globally." He added that Le Meridien is opening eight new hotels this year, "and there's no reason we can't go from 100 hotels to 200 hotels in the next 10 years." We also spoke with Hoyt Harper, SVP, global brand leader for Sheraton Hotels. He said the brand is undergoing an $8 billion growth spurt with 38 new hotels opening in the next 12 months. Expanded club lounges and advanced event technology is a priority for all of them, based on Gen Y meeting and travel trends. "Millennials caused us to change everything, so we are now mobile ﬁrst in everything we do, but when we think of Millennials, we don't just think of young people," said Harper. "Our goal is to help meeting planners and meeting attendees of all ages connect seamlessly, so we're working on meeting apps and connectivity that transcends systems. I think the companies that will be successful are those that are most adaptive, that create meeting environments that ﬁt the group, to adjust meeting space the way the customer needs it, and to leverage technology to enable more integration and participation seamlessly."-Greg Oates "Agile is the new smart." 14 | prevue magazine 14-15_Fresh.indd 14 10/31/14 3:01 PM Project # MU2048

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Prevue November/December 2014

Planner’s Pick: Perez Art Museum, Miami
Fresh Meets: The Evolution of Starwood
Bureau Buzz: Getting to Know Cincinnati
Good Business: Fighting Human Traffi cking
Sea Shores: Cruising Gets Real
The New Local
IMEX 2014
SPECIAL SECTION: ASIA/PACIFIC
SHERATON MACAO
TORCHBEARERS
ENGLAND
On Location: MGM Grand, Las Vegas
On Location: Destination: D.C.
On Location: Generations Riviera Maya

Prevue November/December 2014