Written By: Chris Austin, Vice President of Global Leisure and Luxury Sales, Starwood Hotel and Resorts
I want to personally wish a very happy holiday season to all of our travel professional partners today. You are such a critical part of our business and we at Starwood Hotels & Resorts have always considered you a vital extension of our own sales team. We value your customers as our guests and we work to make you look the hero at every turn. We are finishing a history-making year for our company as we officially became part of Marriott International. As we ready for 2017, I know you will extend that same professionalism and partnership to our entire portfolio of brands.
As we close this very busy year, we are still constantly adding to the portfolio of properties for you to share with your clients. In this last quarter of 2016, we celebrated the opening of two properties in Changsha, Hunan , China, The Meixi Lake Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel and The St. Regis Changsha ; also new as we close the year St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort; and two new W properties, W Goa and W Las Vegas. Share the good news with your customers and know the excitement will only continue in 2017!
This is an exciting time as we form the largest and best hospitality company in the world. We now have more opportunities and more choices for our valued travel professional partners, with 30 brands across more than 5,700 hotels and resorts in more than 110 countries. In addition, we are the largest operator of luxury hotels with nearly 400 hotels in the portfolio and a resorts network that puts us where you and your clients wish to travel.
As a community, so many of you were among our earliest adopters for our award-winning SPG Pro loyalty program! We want to make sure you are getting the full benefits of this program, so be sure to link your SPG®, Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® accounts for full benefits.
While we work together to build the world’s best loyalty program, as active members you and your clients can link your SPG number to your Marriott Rewards number. Linking allows members to take advantage of:
- Elite Status Match and benefits with Marriott Rewards for Marriott stays.
- Points Transfer to discover new redemption options and destinations, including the Bahamas, Budapest and more.
Link accounts at spg.com/linkmarriott. Learn more at spg.com/marriott.
Members will earn the benefits of each respective program for the hotel they’re booking. Booking SPG-participating hotels will receive SPG/SPG Pro benefits, and booking Marriott hotels will receive Marriott Rewards/Marriott Rewarding Events benefits.
As we continue the integration of our companies, members should absolutely link accounts so you can easily be transferred into the future new program, take advantage of elite status match for stays, ability to transfer points, and be part of the conversation!
Stay tuned as we will continue to keep you in the know with all of the exciting changes ahead. Thank you for your past, present and future support of our hotels and resorts. Your business is truly valued at this very important time.
And as we close this year, out of respect for your longstanding support for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, we all wish you a wonderful holiday season and hope you can take some time to escape for yourselves and enjoy a STARPRO rate at one of our properties to celebrate you!
Thank you for your continued partnership.