Starwood's SH Hotels Looks for Developers Aligned on Luxury and Sustainability
Skift Take
Starwood Capital has bet on two trends with SH Hotels. It seems likely that the rich will get richer, boosting demand for luxury hotels. It also seems likely climate change will worsen, increasing the demand for sustainability.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.SH Hotels & Resorts is a hotel brand management company owned by Starwood Capital, a real estate investment firm that has invested in 4,000 hotels across the decades. The chairman of both is Barry Sternlicht, creator of W Hotels and builder of the St. Regis Hotels brand.
SH has been busy growing its hard brands 1 Hotel, Treehouse, and Baccarat — plus its soft brand SH Collection.
In 2022, SH opened 1 Hotel Nashville as a new build and 1 Hotel San Francisco as a conversion, bringing the group's property total to nine. This year it plans to open 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay, 1 Hotel Mayfair, and Treehouse Manchester. Its pipeline includes 1 Hotel Austin, Baccarat Rome, and Baccarat Florence. The brands run from four stars to "five-plus"-stars. Treehouse is the most relatively affordable and informal. Baccarat, a brand extension from the crystal chandelier maker, is the most design-forward and expensive.Raul Leal took over as CEO of SH Hotels & Resorts a year and a half ago, after Arash Azarbarzin moved on to lead Highgate.
"It was a well-run business when I took it over," Leal said, who had been CEO of Virgin Hotels. "I've inherited many things in my life but rarely have I inherited a well-run company." One of Leal's main goals has been to improve the technology stack used by SH Hotels & Resorts. The company signed last year a deal with Salesforce to re-do its customer relationship management software. SH aims to improve how it tracks customer preferences, perhaps as early as midyear. Another Leal goal is t