topic Re: URGENT Marriott/SPG Merger!! in Credit Cards

If Hyatt buys Starwood (Update: Marriott will buy Starwood)

BarryNTexas — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 12:03:48 GMT

It will be interesting to see how the rewards programs are handled. Combined or maintained separate?

I like both so probably won't affect me and I use the Hyatt Chase and SPG Amex for travel as favorites.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

jsucool76 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:59:21 GMT

It would probably be a slow integration brand by brand. They'd have to pull all of the spg elites in, and with the different elite levels spg has (like 15 tiers of Platinum lol) it would be odd to see everyone lumped in as a diamond. Hyatt might need to make another elite level above diamond.

Hopefully they don't keep both programs separate though, like what ihg and Kempton are doing.

Also curious to see what would happen to the spg airline transfer program, as it is one of the strongest pieces of starwoods rewards program

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:24:03 GMT

Is there talks of Hyatt buying Starwood out there?

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 16:43:40 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
It would probably be a slow integration brand by brand. They'd have to pull all of the spg elites in, and with the different elite levels spg has (like 15 tiers of Platinum lol) it would be odd to see everyone lumped in as a diamond. Hyatt might need to make another elite level above diamond.

Hopefully they don't keep both programs separate though, like what ihg and Kempton are doing.

Also curious to see what would happen to the spg airline transfer program, as it is one of the strongest pieces of starwoods rewards program

Are u sure about this? Someone I know at a kimpton property says they will eventually be merged.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

jsucool76 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 16:55:54 GMT

Eventually doesn't solve anything currently though. Ihg acquired Kimpton almost a year ago and there hasn't been any news I've heard about.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:23:04 GMT

I thought Starwood was thinking about buying IHG.

The footprint of IHG with the reward chart of Hyatt would be very nice...but it's all speculation.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

jsucool76 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:23:42 GMT

It's Hyatt and spg. Not ihg. XD

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:42:03 GMT

There's some company "ILG" that is buying "Vistana" from Starwood, but it doesn't look like Vistana is a big piece of Starwood.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

mongstradamus — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 17:46:22 GMT

I haven't really been following this hyatt potential buying of spg, but would that mean that hyatt points would have same value as spg because that would be quite an big deal since spg are probably worth the most out of any of the miles currencies out there.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Imperfectfuture — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:09:09 GMT

From my analyst:

"Shares of Starwood are significantly outperforming the market this morning amid news that the company is in talks to be sold to Hyatt Hotels (H:NYSE)".

Though I don't own HOT, this was the catalyst they were looking for. The deal is not finalized, so any speculation would be extremely premature.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:16:07 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
From my analyst:

"Shares of Starwood are significantly outperforming the market this morning amid news that the company is in talks to be sold to Hyatt Hotels (H:NYSE)".

Though I don't own HOT, this was the catalyst they were looking for. The deal is not finalized, so any speculation would be extremely premature.

Up 6% for the day.. What I would of done to be a fly on the wall and bought some stock yeseterday..

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

NRB525 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:36:17 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
From my analyst:

"Shares of Starwood are significantly outperforming the market this morning amid news that the company is in talks to be sold to Hyatt Hotels (H:NYSE)".

Though I don't own HOT, this was the catalyst they were looking for. The deal is not finalized, so any speculation would be extremely premature.
Up 6% for the day.. What I would of done to be a fly on the wall and bought some stock yeseterday..

Martha Stewart was a fly on the wall a few years ago, and spent some quality time at Club Fed, then got a fashionable ankle bracelet for a few months

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

jsucool76 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:36:27 GMT

@careful

Vistana us a few timeshare properties in the Starwood family I believe. At least I know there is a Vistana timeshare in Orlando as we used to stay there.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

NRB525 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:46:09 GMT

@BarryNTexas wrote:
It will be interesting to see how the rewards programs are handled. Combined or maintained separate?

I like both so probably won't affect me and I use the Hyatt Chase and SPG Amex for travel as favorites.

This will be interesting, potentially disappointing. Each of Hyatt and SPG are smaller programs, which is one of the reasons they tend to more valuable rewards. As the combination gets bigger, it may see less need for the value. Marriott and Hilton have low value points because they can, their hotels are everywhere.

Either the free night or the airline transfer goes away, and either Chase or more likely AMEX is cut out.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 20:09:52 GMT

Sure, we'll give you FTF...for now...

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

creditguy — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 20:34:32 GMT

If Hyatt buys Starwood, and it looks as if its entirely possible. What is to become of the AMEX SPG? another loss for AMEX? can't wait to see those speculative threads like the costco / citi speculation.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

itguy_65 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 21:16:33 GMT

Dear Owner, Earlier this year, Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Starwood) announced its intention to spin off its vacation ownership business into a stand-alone, public company. Today, we are excited to share that immediately following the spin, Starwood Vacation Ownership will be acquired by Interval Leisure Group (ILG), to become one of the industry’s largest providers of world-class vacation experiences. We anticipate this transaction to be completed in the second quarter of 2016, when we officially become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ILG. ILG is a global provider of non-traditional lodging with a portfolio of leisure businesses, including branded vacation ownership, vacation rentals and resort management, that currently operates more than 200 resort properties around the world. As an Owner, you may be familiar with Interval International® – their exchange subsidiary – and a valued partner with us over the past 15 years. With the combination of our two companies, we will create a stronger, more integrated timeshare and exchange business resulting in a more robust portfolio of vacation offerings for Owners and Guests. We will continue to be the exclusive provider of vacation ownership for the renowned Westin® and Sheraton® brands, while providing all of the features and benefits of ownership you have come to expect. As an Owner, you will continue enjoying your timeshare resorts as you always have as well as continued access to the industry-leading Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG) program. Current reservation guidelines and fees, exchange rules, reservation rights, and exchange privileges through Starwood Vacation Network℠, Interval International and other current exchange options will all remain the same. This announcement reinforces our plans for accelerated growth as ILG is committed to invest in new Westin and Sheraton properties. Most notably, The Westin Nanea Ocean Villas, currently under construction, will be the newest resort on beautiful Kā‘anapali Beach in Maui, opening in 2017. In early 2016, we are also scheduled to begin converting the remaining 96 poolside hotel rooms into vacation ownership villas at The Westin St. John Resort & Villas. In addition, the five transferring Starwood properties announced earlier this year remain part of the transaction and are anticipated to provide additional inventory for Owners over time, including The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos; The Westin Cancún Resort & Spa; The Westin Resort & Spa, Puerto Vallarta; Sheraton Kaua‘i Resort; and Sheraton Steamboat Resort. You can continue to access these hotel properties through the SPG program. We believe becoming part of ILG is transformational for our company and holds great value for our Owners. This transaction puts us at the forefront of our industry, offering you and your family even more choices for unique and memorable vacation experiences. Thank you for your continued loyalty. We are excited about our bright future together and will update you as more details become available. To view today’s press release and for a list of questions and answers, click here. Best Regards, Stephen G. Williams Chief Operating Officer

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

red259 — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:04:03 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
Is there talks of Hyatt buying Starwood out there?

Yes, starwoods is on the market and Hyatt appears to be kinda far along in talks to make the purchase. In terms of how this will work for the loyalty programs I am not pleased. Hyatt and Starwoods work harder with their loyalty program because they have to in order to compete with larger chains like marriott and hilton. With this merger though their footprint grows substantially. The programs will not change over night, but eventually they will get merged and usually when that happens you get the bad parts of loyalty programs but not the good parts. It is also doubtful that they will continue to offer seperate credit cards and so either amex or chase will be cut out of the picture. If the merger does go through then if someone was interested I'd make sure to go out and app for all the cards related to the two possible to get free nights/points before the changes get rolled out. Then apply for the new branded cards when those are released. Again this process will take awhile and nothing is set in stone.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

Open123 — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 02:32:47 GMT

The two programs will likely stay independent for quite some time. Though, in the long run, devaulation will be the natural conclusion resluting a shift towards a more revenue based rewards system.

Having accrued a significant amount of SPG points over the years, I'd feel better with Hyatt (they're going to need some creative financing to pull this off), than with their other potential suitors. Personally, I don't mind a revenue based rewards program, and find the possibilities of a Hyatt/Starwoods compelling. While there's not telling how the synergies would work, the increased international footprint from both will be a welcomed changed to most.

While I don't have status with Hyatt, I do have lifetime SPG Platinum. If the buyout/merger occurs, I'm hoping for some reciprocity benefits, which would be nice. Of the major hotel rewards, the Hyatt is where I have the least benefits and rewards.

Since we've known for some time a Starwoods sale is imminent, the Hyatt is probably the "least" unfavorable of all the possible scenarios.

Re: If Hyatt buys Starwood

jsucool76 — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 03:04:08 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
The two programs will likely stay independent for quite some time. Though, in the long run, devaulation will be the natural conclusion resluting a shift towards a more revenue based rewards system.

Having accrued a significant amount of SPG points over the years, I'd feel better with Hyatt (they're going to need some creative financing to pull this off), than with their other potential suitors. Personally, I don't mind a revenue based rewards program, and find the possibilities of a Hyatt/Starwoods compelling. While there's not telling how the synergies would work, the increased international footprint from both will be a welcomed changed to most.

While I don't have status with Hyatt, I do have lifetime SPG Platinum. If the buyout/merger occurs, I'm hoping for some reciprocity benefits, which would be nice. Of the major hotel rewards, the Hyatt is where I have the least benefits and rewards.

Since we've known for some time a Starwoods sale is imminent, the Hyatt is probably the "least" unfavorable of all the possible scenarios.

Hotel programs are all pretty much revenue based (at least the major brands, marriott, hilton, starwood, and hyatt). You earn points based on how many $s you spend. It's not like it's a fixed amount of points per night, regardless of cost (except maybe for bonus opportunities).

I don't think it would necessarily end up in a devaluation of rewards as much as it would end up in a devaluation of elite benefits, leading hyatt to either cut lower tier benefits, or create a new tier somewhere on the chart. Similar to what has happened with american airlines after merging with us air (and all other airline that have merged pretty much) is the elite chart gets very top heavy once all the top tier elites get pooled together. The same thing happened when marriott began granting anyone with UA gold or higher marriott gold status. Lounges became even more crowded, room upgrades happen less frequent because the pool of elites can double in size.

Both Hyatt and Starwood have really mediocre low level elite status though, and no "middle level." It's just SPG gold or SPG platinum, or Hyatt Platinum or Hyatt Diamond. Plus if this is to happen, what happens to all the amex platinum cardholders who get free SPG gold status.

Maybe that is why Amex added hilton gold, cause they know something is gonna happen with SPG. #Conspiracy.