Not much has been said about these new positions – the information was gleaned from an interview that Derek Gale, a writer from Hotels Magazine had with W’s Vice President of Brand Management.

W’s marketing focus will move even further toward events, with more fashion programming (like W’s backstage lounge at New York’s Fashion Week) and music release parties in cities across the globe.

The fact that they are willing to hire someone to be a music curator and a fashion director – for a hotel brand – speaks volumes about the direction Starwood sees W going in. It’s similar to what Starwood did with the LeMeridien brand when they started LM100, and its no coincidence that W’s new boss is Eva Ziegler, whose previous position was brand director at LeMeridien.

Alot of people may ridicule the W brand because of their attempt to be trendy and as well as their “commercialization” of the boutique hotel concept, but no matter what anyone says – they are very successful at it. Unlike some hotel brands that attempt to open hundreds of hotels a year, W sticks to opening just enough hotels that its still able to capture the feeling and the essence of W.

Some boutique hotel companies may do the boutique feel a little better – Thompson Hotels is the first that comes to mind, but their individual hotels are not part of one name-brand. Indigo Hotels is another brand that claims it’s a boutique and tries to give the boutique look and feel – but the segment the brand is in, and the acceptable standards that the hotel has would never reflect a true boutique brand. Not to say that Hotel Indigo is not a quality brand – it is, but it doesnt have the amenities that W would have.

For the majors, Starwood, Marriott, Hilton, Choice, Intercontinental, Wyndham - Starwood is still the only hotel company that has a real boutique hotel product in the market today. Hilton’s Denizen seems DOA, Marriott’s Edition is taking so long to get off the ground I’m wondering if it’s going through some major modifications, Wyndham & Choice don’t even look to be interested in a high-end brand, and Intercontinental has Hotel Indigo.

It’s going to take a lot of catching up to do for any new or existing hotel brand to eclipse the W as hotel brand that’s easy to replicate (relatively speaking of course) and has so many tie ins and marketing kicks that one-up W in the marketplace. The experience and the knowledge that Starwood has on W is tremendous – and a perfect example of that is the value placed on it in the pending Starwood/Hilton lawsuit.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

Wow. This was a surprise!

It’s great news for the Washington DC area in this down economy, and pretty much makes the Washington DC area the lodging capital of America. In addition to Hilton - Choice Hotels (located in Silver Springs, MD) and Marriott (located in Bethsada, MD) plus a large number of hotel management and hotel investment companies are all located within the metro Washington DC area.

I’m very curious as to why this move was made in the first place, even though Hilton has been headquartered in Beverly Hills for decades, a move across the country is a huge undertaking, requiring almost all staff to either move with the company or look elsewhere for work. Does Hilton have the confidence that they will still be able to keep their talent after the move? It’s asking a lot to uproot families from an area that they most likely have grown up in to move to an unfamiliar area – with their other choice being to look for a new job in a horrible job market. I’d say it’s a way for Hilton to encourage attrition without having layoffs, but the costs of moving a headquarters operation is much more expensive than it would cost for layoffs and severance packages.

It’s been suggested that a major reason for the move to the DC Metro area is due to the abundance of hospitality talent in the area, but that’s not good enough reason on its own to move a major international firm’s headquarters over 2,000 miles away. There is no doubt that Hilton is on the verge of a huge corporate change – the launch of Project Global 21, and another major announcement to be made on Monday at ALIS, plus the new regime installed once Blackstone purchased and finally seems to be ready to put Hilton back on the map in terms of being an aggressive competitor in the domestic and international hotel field.

This talk about Hilton moving reminds me of Starwood’s big move from Phoeniz, AZ to NY after they bought Westin & Sheraton, and in 2006 Starwood even announced plans for another major move – from its 200,000 sqft headquarters in White Plains to at 400,000 sqft headquarters either Norwalk, or Stamford, CT or another location in Westchester County, NY. Since that announcement was made, nothing has been said and I think it’s safe to assume that any plans to move to another headquarters is just not viable because of the economic climate.

One good thing about the Hilton move is rent would be alot less expensive than it would have been a few years ago, and it also gives Hilton the ability to start with a clean slate in office design and environment helping employees feel immersed in what they are working for…

Plus – Hilton is alot closer to NJ, where I live, and with the possiblity of all these job openings, maybe thats where I can start to make my mark in hotel development.

andrew@alconic-inc.com