Two luxury hotel brands that sprung from iconic New York
hotels were travel buyers' favorites across all criteria in the 2012 Hotel
Chain Survey. Starwood Hotels & Resorts' St. Regis and Luxury Collection
brands earned the highest overall score in the luxury tier, breaking the
years-long hold that Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton had in BTN's survey.
[Please click here to view the digital edition of the 2012 Hotel Chain Survey, featuring all charted
data, downloadable as a pdf.]
The Starwood brands' overall joint score was more than a
tenth of a point higher than the second-ranked brand, Ritz-Carlton. They had
near-perfect scores for their physical appearance and hotel staff, and also
were the top-scoring brands for their sales staff, business center, business
and in-room amenities and overall price/value relationship.
Although the overall score for Waldorf Astoria Hotels &
Resorts was slightly lower than Ritz-Carlton's, the Hilton brand topped several
criteria: consistency, arranging group travel, meetings facilities, corporate
rate programs and food quality. Four Seasons, last year's top brand, dropped to
fifth.
Although owned by two different companies, St. Regis and
Waldorf Astoria have common roots. The two New York hotels that bear their
original names were companion hotels owned in the early 20th century by the
Astor family. In recent decades, Starwood and Hilton decided to expand them
into luxury brands covering the globe.
"It's only recently that we've had enough hotels to be
seriously measured in this survey," said Paul James, Starwood's global
brand leader for St. Regis and the Luxury Collection. "In 2007, we had 13
St. Regis hotels and somewhere in the low 60s for the Luxury Collection,
heavily focused in Europe. Now, we have 31 St. Regis hotels open, and that will
double again in about a five year-cycle."
Launched as a brand in 2006, Waldorf Astoria is a bit
smaller—22 hotels open and 13 under construction, including properties in
Panama City, Berlin, Amsterdam, Beijing and Dubai, according to Hilton global
head of luxury and lifestyle brands John Vanderslice. Between it and the Conrad
Hotels & Resorts brand, Hilton aims to be the "fastest-growing luxury
hotel company in the world," he said.
On the ropes in the austere post-recession days of 2008,
luxury hotels have rebounded powerfully, with average U.S. occupancy during the
first seven months of 2012 reaching pre-recession levels at 72.5 percent,
according to STR. The average January-July luxury rate increased by 4.8 percent
year over year, the highest of any tier, though it still remains below
pre-recession levels. Rates are poised to go even higher, considering U.S.
luxury hotel demand was up 3 percent year over year through July while supply
actually decreased by 0.5 percent.
"Properties had a very short, sharp bounce in terms of
occupancy, though rate took longer to recover," James said. "The
luxury, urban hotels were places where people needed to do business again, and
if you add in the core international travel group, they were back and we were
soon supplemented by boom economies in China and Brazil."
Corporate group business at luxury hotels also has rebounded
following the days of media scrutiny and the AIG effect, Vanderslice said.
"For a while, people had dropped down and were having
meetings at lower-tier hotels because of economic reasons, but now they're all
bouncing back to luxury," he explained. "Our travel partners have
realized there's actually an efficiency to having a meeting or event at a
luxury hotel because of the facilities and services we provide."
At St. Regis, those services include butler service, and
Waldorf Astoria properties provide personal concierges for transient guests.
Having such services across brands is the true mark of "consistency"
in the luxury tier, where hotels now pride themselves on creating unique designs
and facilities, Vanderslice said.
They also are how luxury hotels can continue to show their
value to high-level corporate travelers, James said.
"Our customers tend to be the CEOs of their business,
and there is no 'on-duty' and 'off-duty,' " he said. "The butlers can
wrestle the mundane out of their agenda: getting their boarding passes printed,
having a cup of coffee or tea ready in the morning or knowing their tastes in
food so they can edit their stay."
James attributed the St. Regis/Luxury Collection's high
score in physical appearance to the relative newness of the portfolio. It also
is investing in upgrades where necessary, such as the recent $40 million
renovation at the St. Regis Aspen Resort, the second-oldest St. Regis property
that had been converted in 1998 from a Ritz-Carlton.
Food is a major part of Waldorf Astoria's history—the
original hotel's culinary inventions include veal Oscar, red velvet cake and,
of course, Waldorf salad—and Vanderslice said "extraordinary restaurants"
led to the brand's top score for food this year. The restaurant at the brand's
Rome Cavelieri hotel, for example, is the city's only three-Michelin-starred
eatery.
Both Vanderslice and James said their brands also benefit
from being a part of multibrand companies, as does Ritz-Carlton, which is part
of Marriott. While there was a time when luxury travelers turned their noses up
at rewards programs, modern executives relish being part of them, partly
because they also benefit when they stay at lower-tier properties, James said.
"CEOs born in the dot-com boom are more relaxed, less
likely to wear a tie and are very comfortable moving across a portfolio of
hotels," he said. "If their business takes them to Cincinnati or
Oshkosh, that's where a Four Points is, and being a part of the Starwood
Preferred Guest program gives them much more control over their stay."
This report
originally appeared in the Sept. 10, 2012, issue of Business Travel News.