According to Bloomberg, there seems to be early talks on the topic of merging Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Starwood) with InterContinental Hotels (IHG) into one major corporation. The collaboration of the two companies will create the world’s third-largest hotel corporation by market value, following Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Marriot International Inc. This is not the first time we have heard of merger talks between the two companies.

InterContinental Hotel Group is British based while Starwood Hotels and Resorts is United-States based. Currently, Starwood has approximately 1,100 properties in over 100 countries around the world and IHG has 4,800 properties in over 100 countries.

Here is a list of the Starwood brands:

• Westin
• Sheraton
• Aloft, a Vision of W Hotels
• Four Points by Sheraton
• The Luxury Collection
• W Hotels
• St. Regis
• Le Meridien
• Element by Westin
• Tribute Portfolio

Here is a list of IHG brands:

• Candlewood Suites
• Crowne Plaza
• Even
• Holiday Inn
• Holiday Inn Express
• Hotel Indigo
• Hualuxe
• InterContinental
• Staybridge Suites

We value Starpoints at 2.3 cents a piece and IHG points at approximately 0.7 cents a piece, unless you take advantage of the Pointsbreak promotion.

It is not known whether these two companies would merge into one program or they would simply keep each program separated. If they do merge, it will probably take some time to be fully integrated with each other.

Personally, I am willing to see what kind of proposed merger before jumping to any conclusions on whether this will be good or bad. Either way, one thing is for sure, such a move would reduce the amount of competition in the market and that usually is never a good thing for consumers.

This is very interesting news and I intend to follow it very closely.

What are your thoughts on the potential merger?

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