Showing posts with label Starwood Preferred Guest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starwood Preferred Guest. Show all posts

Merger of Starwood Vacation Club with Interval Leisure Group Complete

5/18/2016 Unknown
Owners at Starwood Vacation Club (SVC) can now breathe a collective sigh of relief, as the planned merger with Interval Leisure Group, in the works since February 2015, is now complete. A letter recently sent to owners confirmed the completion and announced that SVC is now officially Vistana Signature Experiences Inc., one of the industry's largest providers of world-class vacation experiences.

Starwood Benefits Will Stay the Same

Chief Operating Officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Stephen G. Williams wrote to owners, "This is an exciting time, and we look forward to our continued relationships with Westin and Sheraton as we remain their exclusive provider of vacation ownership." He also assured owners that they would be able to enjoy their timeshares as always, and still receive the same valuable benefits, branded experiences and preferred access to the Starwood Preferred Guest program (SPG).

More Opportunities for Owners

Bigger picture mergers often mean more opportunities for owners and this latest one sounds good. Williams says Vistana is committed to adding more resorts and products. Opening in the summer of 2017 on North Ka'anapali Beach in Maui is the newest resort, Westin Nanea Ocean Villas. In the Caribbean, poolside buildings are being converted to villas at the Westin St. John Resort & Villas providing more availability in 2017.

Five new "upper-upscale" resorts have been added as part of the transaction. Scheduled to reopen in second quarter 2017, after renovations following Hurricane Odile, is the Weston Resort & Spa Los Cabos. The Weston Resort & Spa Cancun, Westin Resort & Spa, Puerto Vallarta, Sheraton Kaua'i Resort and Sheraton Steamboat Springs, are expected to provide additional villa accommodations over time, but until then owners can continue to access them through the SPG program.

Commitment Continues

Williams ends the owner letter with a promise of continued commitment to creating memorable vacation experiences and giving owners a better way to see the world.

To get the full picture visit the new website at www.vistana.com 




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Social Media Use Earns Guests Rewards - Resorts & Hotels Gain Brand Loyalty

9/24/2014 Unknown
We recently stayed at a hotel property in Northern California and just by liking them on Facebook, we received a free bottle of Napa wine. Now, in case you think we did it just for the wine, we did enjoy our stay and it wasn’t any effort to like them on Facebook. Hotels and timeshare resorts are more than ever before using social media to connect with guests and to reward their loyalty with various perks and points when they use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In addition, it’s great advertising for the resort or hotel.  Guests and members posting positive reviews and pictures they've taken at the resort, are often viewed as more authentic and believable than more traditional types of advertising.

Major Chains Embrace Social Media

Major hospitality chains are expanding their rewards programs beyond just the reserving of a room. Members and guests are now more likely to be rewarded for certain behaviors and actions.  Many of these hotel groups have coordinating programs with their vacation ownership arms.
Starwood’s Preferred Guest Program and Caesars Entertainment's Total Rewards programs have come together in a strategic partnership. Members of both programs have the ability to both earn and redeem Starpoints and Total Rewards when staying at either of the chains’ resorts.  Mark Vondrasek, Starwood’s SR VP of Distribution, Loyalty and Partnerships, explained that through the new partnership, "we can fuel our members’ passions by creating exclusive opportunities that allow guests to experience the best of Vegas and beyond, from world-class restaurants to famous shows, shopping and nightlife."
With Marriot Reward Plus Points, members can earn points by doing what they were probably already doing anyway. Rewards are earned by checking in on Facebook, uploading pictures to Instagram and tweeting about their resort stay. Extra points are added for following participating hotels’ Twitter and Instagram accounts or re-tweeting content form the Marriott Rewards Twitter account.

Social Loyalty Platforms

If a resort or hotel would rather, there are companies that can handle the setup and maintenance of the resort’s loyalty program. These companies include I.C.E. and Leisure Loyalty.

Timeshare Advisor

Timeshare Advisor advertises itself as one-stop website for the resort industry and timeshare developers and managers. It provides them the opportunity to showcase their properties to current and potential timeshare owners. On the Timeshare Advisor site, you'll find more than 5,000 worldwide timeshare resorts with pictures and reviews. Their Go and Tell points program, makes it easy for members to share their personal resort experience with their own reviews and pictures. Members receive points for participation which qualifies them for prizes.

Loyalty 360

The Loyalty Marketer's Association, Loyalty 360, sums it all up best with this quote, "As companies continue to strive for the ultimate customer relationship, loyalty marketing is continually evolving to include engagement marketing, customer relationship management, experiential marketing, voice of the customer, data analytics and more. No matter the industry or size of a company, a loyalty strategy should be a top priority."
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Starwood Adds Online Booking Capabilities in Chinese

4/04/2011 JW
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., has announced it has added comprehensive, online booking capabilities in Chinese to all of its Starwood-branded websites, including SPG.com. Now, Chinese speakers can use double byte Chinese characters to search for a hotel, make reservations, retrieve booking information or enroll in the Starwood Preferred Guest® program. This added capability underscores the importance of China to Starwood’s future growth.

On track to be the world’s largest tourism market by 2015, China is already Starwood’s second largest hotel market with 70 existing hotels and more than 80 in the pipeline. One of every three new Starwood hotels is slated to open in China now through the end of 2011, including new brand flagships for eight of its nine brands. Meanwhile, China continues to lead the growth of the award-winning Starwood Preferred Guest program, representing the second largest market for SPG.

“It is essential that we provide a seamless experience for our Chinese customers, especially at a time when China’s heightened appetite for our high-caliber global brands is having a phenomenal impact on our business,” said Phil McAveety, Chief Brand Officer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

“Starwood is the world’s most global hotel company with more than 80% of all future hotels and resorts opening outside the United States. By communicating directly with our global customers, we make it easy for them to connect with our brands.”

To meet growing demand, Starwood opened the largest Customer Contact Center of any international hotel company operating in China, in 2009. Located in Guangzhou, the center employs more than 160 associates to support Chinese-speaking customers traveling to Starwood’s more than 1,000 hotels around the world. Starwood is also the only hospitality company in China that provides 24-hour customer support, 365 days a year, for its Chinese-speaking customers.

“Due to the strong growth of our online customer base in China, we have enhanced our branded websites to offer a superior online experience for Chinese speakers,” said Miguel Ko, Chairman & President, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Asia Pacific. “Our mission has always been to listen to our customers and to stay ahead of changing trends and needs.”

With the addition of Chinese, Starwood now offers websites in eight languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French and Japanese. One fifth of the world’s population, or more than one billion people, speak some variety of Chinese.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and resort companies in the world with 1025 properties in 100 countries and territories, and with 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties.

(Photo credit - oklahoma.possibleworldwide.com)
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