Westin Hotels
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Westin Hotels is a brand that includes hotels, resorts and spas located in the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries. Westin is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Westin Hotels has headquarters in White Plains, New York.
Westin locations are targeted towards upscale business travelers and convention attendees.
History
In 1930 in Yakima, Washington, two hotel-entrepreneurs agreed to join forces and combine their hotels to form a new company called Western Hotels. The founding families were the Thurstons, Dupars and Schmidts. On August 27, 1930, they had 17 hotels which stretched from Seattle to Everett and Boise, Idaho. None of these hotels are still part of Westin today; however, one of them, The Benjamin Franklin Hotel remained until 1980 when it was torn down to make way for the second 47-story tower of The Westin Seattle.
Very early on, the founders hit upon the idea of a hotel management company where they didn’t have to own all of the hotels themselves. It was the first of many innovative “firsts” for the company. It is said by industry experts, that Westin was the first hotel management company in North America. Shortly thereafter, the end of prohibition arrived and the Schmidt family split off from Western to create Olympia Brewing Company in 1936.
Westin innovations introduced in the 1940’s included a way to provide guests with instant reservations confirmations. The system was called Hotel Type and was the first in the industry. Another innovation in 1946 was the first hotel credit card. Is was accepted for room, food and beverage payments.
During the 1940’s, the company adopted a corporate symbol for their stationery, matchbooks and soap.
During 1954 Western Hotels adoped a new name Western International Hotels to reflect it's newly established international presence.
With its 25th anniversary in 1955, Western Hotels added two more innovations"
- Allowing children to stay for free when sharing a room with their parents; It was called the Family Plan.
- Confirmed Reservations Guarantee; if a guest had a confirmed reservation and the hotel could not accommodate the guest due to an overbooking, the hotel would provide a room elsewhere and return the guest to Western the next day.
Western merged with UAL in the 1970 becoming closely associated with United Airlines as part of the a new company called Allegis.
In 1974 Western launched its Central Reservations Office in Omaha, Nebraska. It resulted from a joint agreement between Western and United Airlines and was called WESTRON. This was the system that later became the foundation for all hotel reservations systems, including Hyatt's and Marriott's.
The 50th anniversary of Western International in 1980 saw a name change to Westin.
Westin Hotels & Resorts was introduced in 1985. In 1987, Westin launched its very popular frequent guest program, Westin Premier.
In 1987 Allegis sold Westin to a partnership between Aoki Corporation and Robert M. Bass Group.
The early 1990s several innovations were introduced including:
- voicemail in 1991
- Service Express in 1993
- Westin Kids Club in 1994.
In 1997, Washington State University received a donation of the records for the Westin Hotels and Resorts from the company.
In 1998, Westin’s ownership changed again when Starwood bought out its partners. Less than a month later, Starwood purchased ITT Sheraton Corporation and became Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
External links
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