Jerusalem – Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the world’s largest hotel companies and the owner of the global Sheraton chain, announced last week that as of June 2009 four Israeli hotels will be stripped of their “Sheraton” title.
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The four hotels, all owned by businessman Shaya Boymelgreen are Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv, Sheraton Plaza Jerusalem, Sheraton Tiberias and Sheraton Eilat.
Sheraton City Tower and Sheraton Tel Aviv will maintain the prestigious brand name.
According to the corporation, the decision to remove the Sheraton name from the Israeli hotels was prompted by the desire to preserve the value of the trademark, hinting that the level of the local businesses was not satisfactory.
However, the fact that the hotels have not paid their management and franchise fees to the corporation for many months seems to have contributed to the decision as well.
Starwood announced that the four Israeli hotels will be taken off the chain’s online booking system and their guests will not be eligible for benefits provided by the chain.
Meanwhile, the Fattal-owned Le Méridien Haifa in the northern bay city will lose its “Méridien” title this month after the agreement between the Fattal hotel chain and Starwood has ended. Le Méridien Eilat and Le Méridien Dead Sea will keep their names for the time being.
something sounds fishy! i can understand if one hotel loses the sheraton title, but four hotels?
Its 4 hotels owed by the same person
I’m sure as hell that the decission stems from pressure of outside groups to boycutt isreali interests.
That’s what happens when you don’t update the hotel, but instead update the prices
its a shame. I have 300k *points and always use it at the Jerusalem Plaza. They recently upped it from 7k redemption per night to 10k per night, which seems to indicate that Starwood was considering them a Category 4 instead of 3, and now I guess it isnt really worth the Category 4 Rating either…. pity there are no really good Hotel chains with the point system in Israel anymore.
The quality of these 4 hotels has been going downhill for a long time, and they have not been honoring the starwood standards, especially in regards to redeeming starwood points for free room nights. You can see numerous complaints about them on flyertalk.com in the Starwood forum. Looks like the owner thought he could get the benefits of the Sheraton/Starwood brand without accepting any of the responsibilities that go along with it.
I smell a rat
good maybe the prices will drop from 350 a night
to 125 a night like its worth
I had an expirenece in the shereton eilat that they didn’t want to accept my point. So I called the platnium office and they told me that they had many issues with them and that they were loosing their name. This was 8 months ago! However the jerusalem shereton gives me presidental service! I hope they keep giving it!
The four Israeli Sheratons have been a disaster for any Starwood member used to the benefits of the program. The plaza in Jerusalem especially- where the staff routinely lie about late checkouts / upgrade availability / platinum amenities / and simple room availability- should have been kicked-out of the program a long time ago.
After spending time at the 5 star Le Meridian property in Europe the Plaza was a real letdown. A dump is more like it. Its about time they lost their Sheraton name. U knew it was coming after Boymelgreen took over a few years ago.
It’s terribly wrong of Starwoods to boot 4 hotels in Israel (half of them, there were 9)without any replacements. CALL Starwoods (800) 328-6242 to complain, and hopefully they will add other hotels, especially in Yerushalayim and Teveria…
when was the last time you were at the Plaza?? they just put millions into it!
I stayed there many times years ago. Yes, you could put millions in but I doubt they will do structural changes like bigger elevators, or larger rooms. There was a nastiness with the old coupon Shaboss meals that was just mean, other hotlels found classier ways to deal with it.
the plaza hasn’t been up to par for years
King David or Concord he that hasn’t changed back to an old age home are good with good service. To the point every country serves according to it’s name. Israel rough, europe excellent
Stayed last summer at the Sheraton at Teveria on my starwood account. Gorgeous room with a huge porch—-except the service was below par. Get on board and learn the ropes of hospitality and your name will be reinstated.
Too bad for the starwood members who will lose out greatly.
I just stayed at the plaza in Jerusalem, I have to say I was. Upset the rooms were dirty especially the bathrooms very rundown,they deserve it.
Unfortunately, Shaya Boymelgreen is overextended and cannot maintain his assets. Hopefully the market will take a turn for the better for him as it has for his former partner and present competitor Lev(i) Leviev so that if he cannot maintain the hotels, at least he can sell them at a profit to someone who can maintain them.
The Jerusalem Plaza is a dump. The rooms/bathrooms are filthy. The staff is rude. We just stayed there in January and would never go back unless it was completely redone. I’m glad that Sheraton is taking away the name as it does not meet with their standards.