STAMFORD, Conn. - October 7, 2015 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Spanning from the lush “Hawaiian Islands” of China, to the Alpine charms of Slovenia, to the sun-soaked beauty of the Arizona desert in the United States, Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®) today unveiled the winners of the 2015 Member Favorites Hotels & Resorts List. In this annual ranking, SPG is highlighting the Top Thirty Hotels and Resorts from around the globe. For the first time ever, SPG is unveiling a new ‘Wish List’ feature which allows its well-traveled members to seamlessly create and share their ultimate hotel bucket list. SPG is also revealing that perennial favorites such as London, Paris and New York remain among the top destinations for the world’s most elite travelers, while identifying emerging global hot spots that are becoming the next best place to discover.
Among the highlights of SPG’s fifth annual Member Favorites List:
“Member Favorites is truly a collection of exceptional Starwood hotels and resorts, beloved by SPG members,” says Chris Holdren, Senior Vice President of Starwood Preferred Guest. “This is the first time our ‘Wish List’ functionality is being made available, helping our members to document their aspirational travel destinations for future trip planning. For our hotels, it is an honor to be recognized by our members as being best-in-class.”
This year, members will have the ability to “like” destinations on the 2015 Member Favorite list to create their own collection of “must visit” hotels and resorts for future travel. In addition, they will have the option of sharing their “Wish List” with friends and family on their social channels to get everyone on board for their next Starwood Hotels dream vacation.
Outside of our 2015 Member Favorites rankings, SPG dove into the travel data to reveal the top destinations where members are redeeming their points to identify new and next emerging global hot spots.
Asia Pacific
Europe/Africa/Middle East
The Americas
The 2015 Member Favorite Hotels & Resorts list is based on SPG Ratings & Reviews and hotel survey feedback. In addition, this year SPG added new criteria to the mix: the most popular hotels and resorts for free night redemptions. This unique blend of measurement takes a closer look to pinpoint the hot spots most frequent travelers want to stay.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,200 properties in some 100 countries and over 180,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, Aloft®, Element® and the recently introduced Tribute Portfolio™. The Company boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG®), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. Starwood recently announced plans to spin off its Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc. business, a premier provider of world-class vacation experiences through villa-style resorts and privileged access to Starwood brands, into a standalone public company by the end of 2015. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG®) is an innovative, award-winning frequent traveler program that unites each of Starwood’s 10 distinctive hotel brands and includes more luxury hotels in more destinations around the world. SPG reinvented the hospitality loyalty landscape when it launched in 1999 with its breakthrough policy of no blackout dates, and over the years has continued its tradition of innovation with enhancements such as Cash + Points, SPG MomentsSM, and most recently Your24™ and SPG Lifetime™. In addition to Free Night Awards at more than 1,200 hotels and resorts and Award Flights on over 350 major airlines without blackout dates, the Starpoints® that members earn through SPG can be redeemed for access like no other to experiences in music, sports and the arts through SPG Moments. SPG offers the opportunity for meeting and travel professionals to earn rich rewards including Starpoints and elite status through SPG Pro. SPG also has an ongoing commitment to digital innovation to meet the needs of today’s connected global traveler – from the SPG app for iPhone that utilizes state-aware technology to create a more personalized hotel stay to Starwood’s Best Rate Guarantee on SPG.com, to SPG’s integration within various social media platforms. Offerings such as these have helped SPG build a passionate member base among the world’s most frequent travelers. Learn more at spg.com, spg.com/pro and spg.com/moments and connect with us on facebook.com/spg, twitter.com/spg, foursquare.com/spg, pinterest.com/spglife, and youtube.com/spg.
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SOURCE Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Jessica Doyle
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
203-964-4661
Jessica.doyle@starwoodhotels.com
Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences.