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Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Hospitality
Founded1937; 87 years ago (1937)
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
FoundersErnest Henderson
Robert Moore
Headquarters Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Number of locations
463 [1] (September 2020)
Number of employees
145,000 [2]
Parent Marriott International
Website sheraton.com

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an American international hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean, in addition to 84 hotels with 23,092 rooms in the pipeline. [3]

History

Early years

The origins of Sheraton Hotels date to 1933, when Harvard classmates Ernest Henderson and Robert Moore purchased the Continental Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1937, Henderson and Moore purchased the Standard Investing Corporation and the International Equities Corporation, combining them into the Standard Equities Corporation, [4] the company through which they would run their hotels. Also in 1937, they purchased their second hotel, and the first as part of the new company, the Stonehaven Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts, a converted apartment building. Sheraton dates its founding to that year and considers that property its first hotel. [5]

The chain got its name from the third hotel the pair acquired, in Boston, in 1939. [6] It had a large lighted sign on the roof saying "Sheraton Hotel," which was too expensive to change. Instead, Henderson and Moore decided to call all of their hotels by that name. [7]

Henderson and Moore purchased Boston's famed Copley Plaza Hotel in 1941, and continued expanding rapidly, buying existing properties along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. [6]

In 1946, the Standard Equities Corporation merged with the United States Realty and Improvement Corporation, forming the Sheraton Corporation of America, [6] which became the first hotel chain to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1947. [8]

Expansion

In 1949, Sheraton expanded internationally, buying the Ford Hotels chain, with three properties in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. [9] [10] They quickly resold the Toronto and Ottawa properties to finance their continued Canadian expansion in 1950, paying $4.8 million to purchase Cardy Hotels, a chain of six properties in Ontario and Quebec. [11]

In 1956, Sheraton paid $30 million to buy the Eppley Hotel Company, which was then the largest privately held hotel business in the United States, with 22 properties across six Midwestern states. [12] Sheraton retained ten of the largest hotels and immediately resold the other twelve. That same year, Sheraton acquired its first motels, purchasing two properties in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York. [6] In 1957, Sheraton, which had previously focused on acquiring existing hotels, opened its first newly built hotel, the Philadelphia Sheraton Hotel. [13] In 1958, Sheraton became the first hotel chain to centralize and computerize its reservations when it introduced Reservatron, the hotel industry's first automatic electronic reservations system. [14]

In 1959, Sheraton acquired its first properties outside North America, purchasing four hotels owned by the Matson Lines on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii - the Moana Hotel, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the SurfRider Hotel, and the Princess Kaiulani Hotel. [15] That same year [16] Sheraton opened its first newly built motel, marketed as a "Highway Hotel," the Sheraton Inn, located in Binghamton, New York. [17]

The early 1960s saw the arrival of the first Sheraton hotels outside the US and Canada, with the opening of the Sheraton-Tel Aviv Hotel in Israel in March 1961 and two Caribbean properties in 1962 - the Sheraton-Kingston Hotel in Jamaica [18] and the British Colonial Hilton Nassau in Nassau, Bahamas.

In 1962, Sheraton created a franchise division, primarily to operate Sheraton Motor Inns, large highway motels providing free parking. [19] In 1963 Sheraton opened its first hotel in South America, the Macuto-Sheraton Hotel, outside Caracas, Venezuela. [8] In 1965 the 100th Sheraton property, the Sheraton-Boston Hotel, opened. [8] In 1966 Sheraton opened its first hotel in an Arab country, the Kuwait-Sheraton Hotel. [20] In 1967 Sheraton unveiled Reservatron II, a computer system for personalized reservations. [14] That same year, Sheraton opened its first hotel in Asia, the Sheraton-Philippines Hotel in Manila; its first hotel in Europe, the Sheraton-Du Cap Hotel on the island of Corsica in France; and its first hotels in Australia, two Sheraton Motor Hotels in Melbourne and Sydney. [20]

ITT Purchase

The multinational conglomerate ITT Corporation purchased the chain in 1968. That same year, ITT sold eighteen aging Sheraton properties. [21] Under ITT's ownership, Sheraton quickly moved away from ownership and operation of its properties to a new model of franchising and management, as the chain expanded greatly both in the US and abroad. [22]

In late 1969, Sheraton introduced the hotel industry's first [14] nationwide toll-free number, which displaced two hundred local Sheraton reservation numbers. [23] The radio jingle for "Eight-Oh-Oh, Three-Two-Five, Three-Five Three-Five" [24] [25] "ran throughout the decade and into the eighties" but the jingle's lifespan went even beyond. [26]

In 1970, Sheraton introduced the Sheraton Towers concept, a line of luxury "hotel-within-a-hotel" facilities designed for business travelers and located within Sheraton's largest and most exclusive hotels. The first Sheraton Towers to open was in the chain's flagship Sheraton-Boston Hotel. [22] That same year, Sheraton opened its first hotel in North Africa, the Cario-Sheraton Hotel & Casino. In 1971 Sheraton opened its first hotels in Continental Europe, the Sheraton Stockholm Hotel and the Sheraton-Copenhagen Hotel. In 1972, Sheraton opened its first hotel in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sheraton-Mont Febe Palace in Yaounde, Cameroon. From 1977 to 1997 the company was headquartered at 60 State Street in Boston.

In 1985, Sheraton became the first western chain to operate a hotel bearing the name of an international company in the People's Republic of China, when it assumed management of the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, a financially troubled two-year-old Chinese-American joint venture, [27] which became the Great Wall Sheraton. [28] Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels had opened the Jianguo Hotel in Beijing in 1982 [29] and Holiday Inn had opened the Beijing Lido Hotel in 1984. [30]

By 1987, The New York Times described it as "50 years old, the world's largest hotel chain, and consumer-driven." [31]

ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection

On January 13, 1992, ITT Sheraton designated 28 of its premier hotels and 33 of the Sheraton Towers as the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection. [32] The flagship of the division was The St Regis in New York City.

In 1994, ITT Sheraton purchased a controlling interest in the Italian CIGA chain, the Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company. [33] The chain had begun by operating hotels in Italy, but over-expanded across Europe just as a recession hit, and had been seized from its previous owner, the Aga Khan, by its creditors. [34] The majority of these hotels were placed in the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection, though a few were placed in the Sheraton division.

Four Points by Sheraton

In April 1995, ITT Sheraton introduced a new, mid-range hotel brand, Four Points by Sheraton, to replace the designation of certain hotels as Sheraton Inns. [35]

Starwood purchase

In 1998, Starwood acquired ITT Sheraton for $13.3 billion, topping an offer by rival Hilton. [36] Under Starwood's leadership, Sheraton began renovating many hotels and expanding the brand's footprint. [37]

Starwood also began marketing The Luxury Collection as a completely separate brand, even though it contained a large number of hotels still named Sheraton. Most of those properties have since been renamed. Only three such hotels remain today - Sheraton Addis in ( Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit in ( Bangkok, Thailand), and Sheraton Kuwait in ( Kuwait City, Kuwait).

Also in 1998, Sheraton joined with the Arabella Hospitality Group in Germany to create ArabellaSheraton, [38] a joint venture under which 14 Arabella Hotels in Germany, Switzerland and Spain were rebranded as ArabellaSheraton Hotels. [39]

In 1999, Sheraton bought the outstanding shares in CIGA, giving it complete ownership. [40]

In 2015, Starwood introduced the "Sheraton Grand" brand, higher-end Sheraton properties located in urban or resort destinations. [41]

Marriott purchase

In 2016, Marriott International purchased Starwood Hotels, and the newly merged company again became the world's largest hotel and resort company. [31] Although the Sheraton brand expresses quality in Asia, aging properties have made the US market more problematic. [42]

In 2023, Marriott announced a new spinoff brand of Four Points by Sheraton, called Four Points Express by Sheraton, targeting the mid-range market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its first property opened in Nilüfer, Bursa, Turkey that fall. [43]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sheraton Hotel Locations". Marriott International.
  2. ^ "Profile: Sheraton Hotels and Resorts", Hoover's
  3. ^ "Sheraton". Marriott International.
  4. ^ The Henderson Brothers Group. United States Congressional Serial Set. 1942. pp. 2742–2750.
  5. ^ "About Us".
  6. ^ a b c d "Annual Report for the year ended April 30, 1957". Sheraton Corporation of America – via University of Houston Libraries: Digital Collections.
  7. ^ "How Sheraton Hotel Chain Got Its Start". Abilene Reporter-News. 5 June 1960. p. 13C.
  8. ^ a b c "History". Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Archived from the original on 23 July 2015. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  9. ^ "SHERATON SEEKS FORD HOTELS CO.; $30 a Share Offered for All Stock After Purchase of President's Holdings". The New York Times. 17 August 1949.
  10. ^ "HOTELS: Six for Sheraton". Time (magazine). 6 February 1950. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  11. ^ Hilda M. Cardy v. Vernon G. Cardy, 6037 (N.Y. App. Div. 1955).
  12. ^ "Hotels: Closing the gap". Time. June 4, 1956. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  13. ^ Livingston, J. A. (8 March 1957). "Philadelphians Suddenly Find New Hotel in Midst; Sheraton Goes All Out". Abilene Reporter-News. p. 7-A. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  14. ^ a b c "ITT SHERATON CORPORATION - Company Profile". Reference for Business.
  15. ^ "History". Matson Navigation.
  16. ^ Joseph, Bob (June 7, 2017). "New Binghamton Hotel Was Big News in the 1950s". WNBF News.
  17. ^ "Annual Report for the year ending 30 April 1959". Sheraton Corporation of America.
  18. ^ Putz, John (14 August 2018). "Can democracy survive in newly independent Jamaica? – archive, 1962". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  19. ^ Jakle, John A.; Keith A. Sculle; Jefferson S. Rogers (2002). The Motel in America. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 128. ISBN  9780801869181.
  20. ^ a b "Annual Report for the year ending April 30, 1967". University of Houston Libraries. Sheraton Corporation of America.
  21. ^ "Belvedere Hotel" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  22. ^ a b "ITT SHERATON CORPORATION History". Funding Universe.
  23. ^ Turkel, Stanley (14 May 2019). "Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 213: Hotel History: Sheraton's Classic Advertising Campaigns". Hotel Online.
  24. ^ "1970's Sheraton Hotel Radio Commercial - 800-325-3535". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-11-18.
  25. ^ West, Gary (July 14, 2015). "Famous Sheraton Radio Ad, 1970s, 800-325-3535".
  26. ^ Garfield, Bob (3 January 2006). "Plop, plop: Jingles drop out of favor". The Seattle Times.
  27. ^ Burns, John F. (24 March 1985). "A New Team Checks In At The Great Wall Hotel". The New York Times.
  28. ^ Horwitz, Sari (19 March 1985). "Sheraton to Run Hotel in Beijing". The Washington Post.
  29. ^ Moody, Andrew (27 May 2011). "Building boom in hotel industry". China Daily.
  30. ^ Street, Nancy Lynch; Matelski, Marilyn J (11 December 2009). American Businesses in China: Balancing Culture and Communication (2d ed.). McFarland. ISBN  9780786451579.
  31. ^ a b Dougherty, Philip H. (30 January 1987). "Advertising; A Smiling Sheraton Campaign". The New York Times.
  32. ^ "ITT Sheraton Corporation Extends Segmentation By Premiering The ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection" (Press release). ITT Sheraton. January 13, 1994. Archived from the original on 2017-01-01 – via Free Online Library.
  33. ^ "ITT's Sheraton Unit in Pact To Buy Ciga Hotels of Italy". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. February 10, 1994.
  34. ^ Zagorin, Adam (June 7, 1993). "How the Aga Khan Stumbled". Time. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  35. ^ "Sheraton Inns to Get New Name". The Buffalo News. April 21, 1995.
  36. ^ "ITT Accepts Starwood's Offer". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Associated Press. October 21, 1997. p. D6. Retrieved March 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ "Starwood Hotels confirms $4bn Sheraton expansion". Breaking Travel News!. February 17, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  38. ^ "The Schörghuber Corporate Group changes its hotel strategy" (Press release). Schörghuber Group. August 25, 2010.
  39. ^ "ITT Sheraton Adds 31 New Hotels in Nine Countries, Includes New Joint Venture with Arabella in Europe" (Press release). ITT Sheraton. February 1, 1998.
  40. ^ "Sheraton Makes Offer to Buy The Rest of CIGE of Italy". The New York Times. Dow Jones. October 30, 1999.
  41. ^ "Starwood launches "Sheraton Grand" to single out top-tier Sheraton hotels". Hospitality On. August 19, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  42. ^ Leff, Gary (June 6, 2018). "$500 Million to Fix Lagging Sheratons". View from the Wing. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  43. ^ "Marriott International Continues Affordable Midscale Growth with Announcement of Four Points Express by Sheraton".

External links

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