Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008 - (Page 64)

64 News H&MM October 6, 2008 | HotelMotel.com Starwood’s new roster Continued from page 1 ership roster was a willingness to be part of a team. He describes himself as a “player-coach” and said an emphasis on teamwork is one way the company’s direction differs from the past. “You can have a brilliant CEO, but it’s much more important to have a smart organization,” he said during an interview at the W New York. “Like-minded people who are experts in their areas [who] see themselves contributing to the team will make better decisions than any one individual.” His most recent team move was in September, with the promotion of Matthew Avril, formerly co-president of Starwood Vacation Ownership, to president of the hotel group. Avril replaced Matt Ouimet, who left the company. Sergio Rivera, who co-headed SVO, took sole management responsibility of the business. Avril has been with Starwood and its predecessor Vistana for 16 years. He said areas of focus in the near term will include developing industry-leading revenue-management capabilities, partnering with human resources to develop talent and aggressively driving efforts to reduce costs while maintaining great guest experiences and growth. Van Paasschen is a great choice to lead Starwood, particularly at this point in its history, Avril said. “He’s the right leader to nurture Starwood’s native creativity and help us develop a short but meaningful innovation agenda, with products and services that guests tell us really matter,” he said. “The secret to great brands isn’t just consistency, it’s what is different that builds loyalty with guests and owners, and Frits understands what it takes to build superior brands.” Additions to the senior leadership team include Jeff Cava, EVP and chief human resources ofﬁcer; Phil McAveety, chief brand ofﬁcer, who worked with van Paasschen for ﬁve years at Nike; and Simon Turner, president of global development. Van Paasschen said Cava will be pivotal to attracting and developing talent to operate the hotels he expects to open, which will take the company from 900 to 1,500 properties. McAveety’s title of chief brand The St. Regis Washington, D.C., completed a renovation of all guestrooms and public spaces. Formerly offering 193 guestrooms, the renovated property features 175 rooms, allowing for 11 additional suites. Continue the journey online: To read more about Frits van Paasschen, the Starwood Journey and luxury brands in the September issue of LUXURY HOTELIER magazine, visit www.luxuryhotelier.com. ofﬁcer—rather than chief marketing ofﬁcer—is one that van Paasschen said reﬂects a focus on effective, efﬁcient organization. “By really deﬁning the role of brand management and my team as looking after the brand, it means we really need to think about every consumer contact point from prebooking and arrival, the stay itself and after check-out,” McAveety said. “The days of marketing people thinking about ads and collateral in isolation really are gone.” Part of the reason for hiring McAveety and Turner was their global understanding. About half of the company’s pipeline is outside the U.S. “You can’t have a command and control approach to managing a business that has to be at once locally relevant and globally consistent,” van Paasschen said. “One of the things I’ve admired about Starwood is that since the company was almost created overnight, it had to take a very customer-driven approach,” Turner said. “We don’t try to tell the guest, ‘Here’s what you’re go- The 150-room Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village is a new-build property owned by SoHo Village LLC. tin; and upscale brands are Four Points by Sheraton and the newer aloft and Element brands, which opened their ﬁrst properties this year. Brand goals this year have been launching aloft and Element and revitalizing the Sheraton brand, which represents The journey more than half of the In addition to building company’s total rooms. his team, van Paasschen As for creating anothhas focused on deﬁning er new brand, van PaassStarwood’s vision for the McAveety STARWOOD chen said he doesn’t have company’s 155,000 emto be the one who comes ployees. Five essentials up with an idea to feel make up the Starwood like he’s been successJourney: Starwood-class ful in his role. “My job is brands, brilliant executo make sure Starwood tion, global growth, great gets to 1,500-2,000 hotalent and market-leading tels around the world, returns. has the best portfolio “It’s my job to comof brands in the lodgmunicate that and make Turner ing business, has been sure the senior leadership STARWOOD extraordinarily rewardof the company becomes evangelical about that notion of ing to its shareholders and offers a what the direction of the company great experience for our guests and is,” van Paasschen said. “As impor- associates. That’s success to me. tant, we have to make sure when I None of that has to be my idea.” Van Paasschen likes the curreview the performance of my direct reports, it’s their performance rent balance of the portfolio. against objectives that are tied to “They’re distinctive and comwhat their part of the journey is, pelling brands, each with great and that they in turn cascade those growth opportunities in different geographies and at different stages priorities to their organization.” It’s not a transformation that of penetration. I don’t feel like we can be achieved in six months, he need to add a brand to create the Starwood growth story.” said. However, Le Méridien is an example of the opportunity to bring Compelling brands One of the essentials of the Star- a brand into the portfolio, and Elwood Journey is to deliver a port- ement and aloft are examples of folio of “distinctive and compel- successful launch propositions, he ling brands,” or Starwood-class said. “There aren’t three more that I brands. Starwood has nine brands with have in the back of my mind that 900 hotels in 100 countries. Lux- we need to create for later. We just ury and upper-upscale properties don’t need that. In fact, we are account for 70 percent of the port- stretched right now with the good folio. Luxury brands are The Lux- problem of how do we continue to ury Collection, St. Regis and W grow these brands and fulﬁll the Hotels; upper-upscale brands are opportunity that they have.” hgunter@questex.com Sheraton, Le Méridien and Wesing to stay in.’” He cited the evolution of W Hotels, which started out as a boutique brand. “Our customers have pushed us to a place where it’s much more than a boutique conversion brand— it’s a lifestyle,” he said. STARWOOD STARWOOD http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.luxuryhotelier.com

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Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008 Contents NYLO Brands Mix Up Lifestyle Segment La Quinta Eyes Mexico, Canada for Growth Perspective Legally Speaking Marketing Matters Satisfaction Trends Maintenance Doctor HotelWorld Update Trends & Stats Independent Hotels Top Hotel Multiunit Owners and Developers Survey Cleaning & Maintenance Music Wallcoverings Supplier News Transactions Softgoods: Bedding & Linens People Events Ad/Editorial Index Marketplace Classifieds Checking Out

Hotel & Motel Management - October 6, 2008

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