Hilton Hotels Spying on Starwood?

It seems luxury hotels can play the spy game too.

Starwood Hotel & Resorts has sued Hilton Hotels and two of its top executives (who used to work at Starwood) for corporate espionage. The accusation brings to mind amusing scenarios – think Hilton corporate employees snooping around Starwood hotels, taking notes on the thread count of linens, mini bar contents and secret sauce recipes at onsite hotel restaurants…

Not even remotely amusing from Starwood’s perspective, however. Travel has plummeted along with the economy, and that includes a dramatic drop in hotel stays. Competition for hotel business is fierce and hotels that used to charge $400+ a night have in many cases lowered their rates to under $100. Great news for budget travelers, but not so great for the hotel business – or hotel spies. This is not the time to be caught stealing trade secrets, as tensions are high.

According to Starwood, the two ex-Starwood execs stole over 100,000 documents before they left the one company for the other. Starwood wants financial compensation for the damages and is seeking a court order that would effectively stop all development with respect to the new Hilton ‘Denizen’ hotel brand announced earlier this year. The Denizen brand was launched after 9 months of development instead of the usual 3 to 5 years due to, according to Starwood, the pilfering of Starwood’s secret step-by-step manual for creating a luxury lifestyle hotel brand.

image courtesy of www.interiordesign.net