Starwood assimilates Le Meridien and loyalty programme
Starwood Hotels & Resorts reports good progress in the integration of the Le Meridien hotel brand, which Starwood acquired four months ago, as Le Meridien's reservations, distribution, loyalty programme and sales functions have now been integrated into Starwood.
As part of the integration effort, Moments, the Le Meridien loyalty programme, will cease to exist and Le Meridien hotels will join the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty programme.
This gives Moments members access to Starwood's global network (including 8 brands and 850 hotels in almost 100 countries). Similarly, Starwood Preferred Guest members can also benefit at over 100 Le Meridien hotels, which nearly doubles Starwood's hotel footprint in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. (New destinations where Starwood Preferred Guest members can earn and redeem points include Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Budapest.)
Merger milestone According to Javier Benito, Starwood's executive vice president and CMO, "The assimilation of Moments into Starwood Preferred Guest not only provides members with more options around the globe, but also enables Starwood to market to a whole new group of international travellers, particularly inbound travellers to the US, where Le Meridien has little presence."
Completing these initial integrations (and particularly the merging of the hotels' web sites and loyalty programmes) was described as a "key milestone" in the transition, which the company expects to be completed within the next six months.
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