Nowhere to Go But Up

But it was a business momentum in which Sheraton lost footing. The brand was in decline, with Consumer Reports ranking it the worst in its category based on service and value. By 2009, the company had done its own research and recognized the urgency of its standing. “When we kicked off this initiative,” recalls Harper,  “our goal was to raise the esteem for the brand and put us in a position to compete with and outperform Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt.”

With the support of Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen and their operation team around the world, Harper led the $6 billion project to revamp Sheraton. Having overhauled more than 70% of the brand’s portfolio, Sheraton now leads the other brands and represents 30% of Starwood’s pipeline growth. Growing from 150 hotels in 30 countries to more than 400 hotels in 70 countries, Sheraton is scheduled to open 20 more properties this year, aggressively breaking ground in a number of new markets that include Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and India. It has also developed a number of partnerships to engender customer loyalty. Here, Harper shares what he’s learned about brand development and maintaining customer satisfaction.

When starting from such a low point, how do you begin to reposition your brand?
Our brand, while recognized worldwide, had challenges with quality and consistency, and the most important thing to be a strong brand is a consistent product and a consistent service standard. One of the first things my team did was calibrate every hotel in the world based on guest satisfaction, likelihood to return, and likelihood to recommend. We hired a third party to do quality assurance inspections at every one of the hotels and we rated them on conditions [such as] cleanliness, security, and brand standards. This data was collected and shared internally and with all of the owners, and we created a plan to decide which hotels should be renovated and the extent of those renovations. Those that just didn’t fit with the direction of the brand, we developed an exit strategy for those hotels.

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