Westin Timeshare

The marketplace becomes increasingly more interesting in a world where the ‘rules’ of business are evolving before our very eyes. In an interesting move in brand building, Westin Hotels & Resorts (which includes Westin timeshare), launched the website (www.westin-hotelsathome.com) dedicated to selling their signature products. Their guests can continue the Westin Resort luxury experience long after they have checked out of the hotel or come to the end of their Westin timeshare vacation. Westin has even aligned with Nordstrom’s so you can purchase their famous bed sheets and other signature Westin items at your local mall.

Now the branding wizards at Westin Hotels & Resorts are taking the magic of their signature “10-layer Heavenly Bed®” to a new venue, making it available to the mainstream marketplace in a way no hotelier previous has done with its branded products—they are setting up shop on Amazon.com.

A New Marketing Avenue for Westin Resorts and Westin Timeshare

Westin’s innovative direction makes them the first hotelier to launch a branded storefront on Amazon.com. They will be using the Selling on Amazon program, a part of Amazon Services, which companies of all sizes, including solo-entrepreneurs, utilize for retailing their products.

Planned as a tool for expanding the company’s ‘wellness’ message, the Westin on Amazon storefront will sell Westin’s own Heavenly Bath collection and signature line of White Tea fragrance candles and diffusers along with compatible lines including: Tea Forté, Riedel, Kate’s Paperie, and Gaiam.

The branded Amazon store launches March 1, with an introductory gift of a $100 Amazon.com gift card to all hotel guests who stay twice mid-week from February 22 to May 13 and have preregistered on westin.com/balance.

Over the years, Westin Resorts have sold roughly 40,000 Heavenly Beds, more than 32,000 sheets, 100,000 pillows, and over 10,000 Heavenly spa bath products. When you think about it, what better way to nurture brand loyalty than by appealing to your market with a relaxing sensory experience that they can enjoy on a daily (and nightly) basis?

Starwood is the parent company of Westin timeshare and of Sheraton timeshare.

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts are rolling out a new $20 million marketing campaign created to help recharge the company’s brand. Called, “Rediscover Sheraton,” the marketing campaign is intended to inspire vacationers and travelers to take a fresh look at Sheraton properties.

Sheraton’s refreshed face includes 300 new lobbies; the new wifi wired lobby lounges called Link@Sheraton; some 70 thousand new guestrooms and 100,000 new beds.

With the intent of attracting both leisure travelers, vacationers, and the millions of people who combine the two, Sheraton Resort’s rebranding includes defining themselves as the brand that:

• “Brings business suits and bathing suits together…”
• “Brings power walks and power talks together…”
• “Brings bottom lines and bottom ups together…”

The marketing effort even makes use of the word: “bleisure” a blending of the words business and leisure.

Sheraton timeshares are part of the family of Starwood resorts, which also includes Westin timeshare and other popular properties worldwide. To find out more about outstanding opportunities in Sheraton timeshare resales, click on any of the links below:

• Sheraton Broadway Plantation (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
• Sheraton Desert Oasis (Scottsdale, Arizona)
• Sheraton Mountain Vista (Avon, Colorado)
• Sheraton PGA Vacation Resort (Port St. Lucie, Florida)
• Sheraton Vistana Resort (Orlando, Florida)
• Sheraton Vistana Villages (Orlando, Florida)

Select Westin and Hyatt Resorts are improving the experience for anyone who would like to incorporate a good run as part of their resort stay.

At Westin Resorts in 30 cities, a “running” concierge is available three mornings each week to lead guests on a three-mile jog. And more than 100 Hyatt Hotels and Resorts are now providing their guests with running route maps and GPS armbands. At both Westin and Hyatt, the services are free.

While many timeshare vacationers look forward to putting their feet up by the pool, others are enthusiastic about getting involved in the sports and recreation activities that are available at most timeshare resorts. Jogging trails, biking trails, and even on-property or nearby by hiking and horseback riding are frequently available at many timeshare resorts.

Runners, not already familiar with MapMyRun.com, will find the website to be a valuable tool whether jogging at home or during travels. MapMyRun offers some 775,000 US jogging routes, which you can save to your GPS. Besides introducing you to a vast online community of runners, this website helps you track your training and even count the calories you have burned. And while all of these benefits for runners are free, City Running Tours is an excellent paid service you may want to learn more about.

The Timeshare Authority told you about City Running Tours last year in a post we did on New York City timeshares. City Running Tours offers you longer runs and run tailored to your specific requests, as well as runs along preset routes designed to maximize the experience for you both as a runner and as a sightseer.

Whether you are vacationing at a Hyatt timeshare, a Westin timeshare, or any of the many beautiful timeshare resort worldwide, don’t forget to pack your running shoes.

For the third quarter of 2009, Starwood Hotels and Starwood timeshares has reported EPS at $.22 as compared $.62 for the same quarter in 2008. And while this comes as no surprise to anyone inside or outside the industry, there was at least one important bit of information in the report I found particularly interesting.

Here’s a summary of some of the notable points from their Quarterly Report, especially as related to Starwood timeshares:

• Operating income from Starwood vacation ownership (Starwood timeshare) and residential declined $47 million compared to 2008.
• Frits van Paasschen, CEO of Starwood says referring to both the timeshare and the hotel segments of the company’s business: “Over the past twelve months we have focused on cost containment and debt reduction, which positions us well to ‘Own the Upswing’. Our increasingly fee-based, capital-efficient business model will grow as REVPAR recovers and as our pipeline translates into unit additions. Our owned hotels are skewed towards the high end and have been particularly hard-hit over the past twelve months, implying they are poised for a strong rebound as the world economy recovers. And with half of our hotels outside of the United States, we will benefit from secular growth in international markets …With the $6 billion Sheraton Revitalization Program nearly complete, I can’t think of a better time to aggressively re-launch the brand than into the early stages of an upcycle.”
• Starwood timeshare reported a revenue decrease of 31.7 percent to $125 million as compared to 2008. Starwood also implemented what it calls “significant cost reductions” in its timeshare division, (which most notably came in the form of timeshare sales staff layoffs, one would speculate, not in decreased services to timeshare owners).
• The average sale price of Starwood timeshare dropped by nearly 22 percent, which Starwood notes is primarily due to increased sales of lower value timeshares …

And here is one of the most significant point to be gleaned from Starwood’s report in regards to timeshare sales. In addressing which factors contributed to Starwood timeshare’s drop in average sale price, they reported a higher percentage of biennial sales.

Very noteworthy fact here, don’t miss its significance: Consumers still wanted to become Starwood timeshare owners. They still wanted to buy timeshare and to enjoy the benefits of timeshare vacations. And when the economy makes it challenging, they just change their game plan and opt to enjoy the properties every other year, rather than annually. Bottom line—they didn’t give up their dream of timeshare vacations; they simply adjusted the schedule.
Click here to read the full report.

Click here to read the full report.