Will Home Sharing be the Death of Luxury Hotels?
The luxury hotel industry is undergoing a dramatic series of changes. The completion of Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood last month means that 30 brands, from very high to very low, are all under one roof. Can a luxury brand be run well when it has that many sisters and brothers? We’ll find out.
There are questions about whether Hyatt is of sufficient scale given its loss of Starwood to Marriott; how the online travel sites will ultimately affect occupancy and pricing across the industry, and how long the global slowdown in spending in key markets like Asia will last.
But the potentially most significant challenge of all for the world’s most expensive hotel groups? Home sharing.