Holiday Rerun: How Starwood Makes Its Hotels Feel Different: Nature, Soul, and Experience

To ease us into the holiday weekend, here's one of my favorite chats from the year: Starwood Hotels operates 1 Hotels, Treehouse Hotels and Baccarat Hotels & Resorts around one idea: products need emotion and soul, not templates. While hosting Starwood's annual conference, I talked with Raul Leal, CEO of Starwood Hotels, about differentiation through nature-led design, human experience, and AI-driven personalization that stays human. 🌿 Raul says nature-led "hardware" sets the tone the second guests walk in   🤖 He uses AI to understand preferences and deliver better moments on-property without creeping people out 🍽️ He treats F&B as brand identity, not a side business 💰 He focuses on total revenue per customer instead of RevPAR-only thinking 🎁 He frames the mission program as affiliation plus perks, not points for points' sake 👥 He uses guest and employee focus groups to keep the brands honest Thanks to Actabl for supporting this episode. Actabl gives you the power to profit. Visit Actabl.com. Want the weekly roundup of news, videos, and what you might've missed? Text HOTEL to 66866 for hashtag#NoVacancyNews.