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Barry Sternlicht is bringing back the Starwood Hotel brand

    Barry Sternlicht made a fortune building Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which spawned successful brands like W Hotels, into a travel industry giant.

    Now he wants to do it all again – under the name Starwood.

    Mr. Sternlicht is reviving the Starwood Hotels brand starting in February, nine years after the previous company was sold to Marriott in a $13 billion deal that created the world's largest hotel chain. His current hotel company, SH Hotels & Resorts, will adopt the Starwood name.

    The move is a sign that Mr. Sternlicht, 64, is looking to reassert himself as a force in the hospitality industry 20 years after stepping down from Starwood. Since then, he has largely focused on Starwood Capital, the $115 billion private equity firm where he founded Starwood Hotels.

    Hotels have remained part of Starwood Capital's business, with Mr. Sternlicht buying and selling them just as he has apartment buildings and other properties. But since 2015, he said, he wanted to make another attempt to make a mark in the hotel management industry under the Starwood name.

    “I'm a bit like a singer who only has one song,” he said in an interview. “I want to have two songs.”

    Reviving the Starwood name may seem like a small change in the grand scheme of things; Indeed, Marriott had discontinued it years ago. But beyond his attachment to the name, Mr. Sternlicht believed that reclaiming the name would increase the company's profile and help with recruitment. Last year he took back the brand.

    It is the latest step in Mr. Sternlicht's campaign to build a new hotel empire. By the time Marriott acquired the old Starwood, that company managed more than 1,300 properties in 100 countries, with brands including Westin, W, Sheraton and St. Regis. The newly reborn Starwood has three brands to date, with 14 hotels in five countries.

    It will probably be compared to what Mr. Sternlicht achieved the first time.

    Mr. Sternlicht, a real estate investor by trade, had not worked specifically in the hotel industry before 1994, when his Starwood Capital bought the Westin from a Japanese company and then began adding other chains. In 1998, Mr. Sternlicht created the W chain, whose glamorous lobbies and bars made it synonymous with sleek chic.

    He delved into even the smallest details – the number of pillows, the way porters handled guests' luggage – at existing chains such as Westin and Sheraton. “I'm like the style police, so people don't stray,” he said.

    And at Westin Hotels he introduced what he called the Heavenly Bed, which quickly became a selling point for the chain. It was a gamble to improve travelers' experience at the chain, although employees initially balked at the cost.

    “Changing every bed in Westins cost $17 million,” Mr. Sternlicht said. “It was the best $17 million we ever spent.”

    The Heavenly Bed quickly became popular, leading to it being sold at Nordstroms — and rivals rolling out their own fluffy snow-white mattress offerings.

    “He was the one who really cemented the concept of lifestyle hotels,” said Bjorn Hanson, a hospitality consultant who calls Mr. Sternlicht one of the architects of the modern hotel industry. “The industry needed an outsider to say, 'What is important to hotel guests?'”

    Mr. Sternlicht stepped down as Starwood's executive chairman in 2005 after years of often clashing with the company's other top executives. Ten years later, Marriott bought Starwood after a fierce bidding war with a Chinese insurance company.

    At that time, Mr. Sternlicht was back in the hotel business and created three new chains. One of these is the luxury Baccarat, whose Manhattan location features ornate crystal chandeliers from the French glassmaker from which the brand licenses. (Starwood Capital also once owned that company.)

    Another example is 1 Hotels, an eco-conscious lifestyle brand, with wood, stone and green foliage adorning its lobbies. A third is Treehouse, which Mr. Sternlicht described as a playful brand with vintage styles meant to remind travelers of their childhood. And he said he's been working on at least one more brand.

    The new Starwood has plans to open 22 hotels in the pipeline through 2028, including 1 hotel in Austin, Texas; in Crete and in Seattle; Treehouses in Manchester, England and Miami; and Baccarats in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; the Maldives and Rome. All three brands are also expected to open locations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

    (Mr. Sternlicht added that while he had no intention of selling the hotel business, he had considered selling a small portion to raise funds for further international expansion.)

    But the hotel industry has become much busier since Mr. Sternlicht built the original Starwood. Its innovations – in amenities and customer service, design, marketing and more – have been absorbed by competitors. Every major operator has a lifestyle brand and numerous independent boutiques have opened.

    For Mr. Sternlicht, however, the work itself is part of the motivation.

    “This is my passion,” he said. “Designing hotels and keeping them branded is fun.”