Starwood Around the World

Starwood Around the World

Globalization is defined as a process of interaction and integration among people, company and governments across national borders worldwide (Cline, n.d., para.1). It is motivated by international trade and investment and assisted by information technology. Globalization started thousands of years ago and became an intensifying trend that cannot be stemmed, due to the rapid development of global economies and technologies (Cline, n.d., para.1). Since tourism is considered a major export industry in more and more countries, the hospitality industry is therefore inherently connected. People from all over the world want to experience what the world has to offer, so hotels need to continuously innovate and stay connected to global trends in order to compete on a global level.

Among all the hotel chains, there are a few main players that are rapidly expanding on a global scale. These include Intercontinental Hotel Group ("InterContinental Hotels", n.d., para.1), Accor ("Accorhotels", n.d., para.1-3) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts ("Starwood Hotels", n.d., para.2). Starwood Hotels & Resorts in particular are leading the industry with their rapid expansion with more than 1,000 hotels located across nearly 100 countries. The ownership of Starwood is mainly franchised (48%), which includes nine internationally celebrated brands: Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, St. Regis, Four Points by Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Aloft and Element ("Who we are", n.d., para.1-9). However, as one of the largest upscale and luxury hotel groups, the global portfolio of Starwood is unmatched. Starwood is planning to increase its worldwide footprint by 20% in the next five years. As China is quickly becoming an economic power house, the chief executive of Starwood, Frits Van Paasschen is moving his company's headquarters to Shanghai (Berzon, 2011, para.4 ). Since the first Sheraton arrived in China in 1985, Starwood has followed up with 90 more hotels, tripling the number of Starwood properties in the United States. This rapid expansion has also happened in other Asian countries like Japan, Korea and Singapore. Due to their domination in the market place, globalization has both positive and negative impacts on the Starwood Company.

There are three main positive impacts of globalization on Starwood. Firstly, globalization makes Starwood a multi-cultured international organization. Due to globalization, the management of Starwood is able to learn about local cultures and customs and manage the business in a flexible way rather than staying static and out of date. Secondly, globalization brings Starwood larger markets ("Discuss the impact", n.d., para.2). The customer base has significantly increased due to the company's globalization. Innovations in transport make it easy for people to travel frequently