http://www.hotelchatter.com/ Hotel Reviews, Hotel Ratings, Hotel Openings en-us Copyright 2008 - SFO Media 2009-11-24T18:33:44Z HotelChatter HotelChatter http://www.hotelchatter.com/images/hcwhite.jpg http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Denizen%20Hotels http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/10/7/145747/419 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/nodenizen.jpg" class="top"><p> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125487422757969391.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories&loc=interstitialskip">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported this morning that <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/hilton hotels">Hilton Hotels</a> and its executives accused of stealing proprietary <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/w hotels">W Hotel</a> information to create their now dead-in-the-water hotel brand <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen">Denizen Hotels</a>, could face criminal charges. <blockquote><p>The grand jury is part of a six-month-old Justice Department probe into allegations that Hilton, which is owned by private-equity firm Blackstone Group, used trade secrets taken by former Starwood executives, who defected to Hilton last year, to develop its own luxury brand to compete with Starwood's successful W chain.</blockquote></p><p>About 30 Hilton employees and executives have either been fired or placed on leave. <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/ross klein">Ross Klein</a>, the former president of Starwood Hotels who defected to Hilton and juliana 2009-10-07T15:18:26-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/7/6/161925/1166 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6929/nodenizen.jpg" class="top"> <P>Oh <b><a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen hotels">Denizen</a></b>. You seem to be gone &#151; your website is dead, there's been nothing but quiet since development <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/4/21/113619/147/hotels/Hilton_Suspends_Development_of_Denizen_Hotels">was suspended</a>, which is probably the wise (and law-abiding!) thing to do &#151; but we just like to do little updates now and then just to remind the world that, though you may be gone-ish, we haven't forgotten you. <p>And neither has <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/hilton hotels">Hilton</a>, we suppose. While we assume legal proceedings and negotiations and possible <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/6/5/153844/9876/hotels/Hilton_and_Starwood_to_Settle_Denizen_Dispute_Out_of_Court_">out-of-court</a> (and outta the press) settlements are underway, we noticed the brand is absent from the Hilton Family website &#151; but not, it seems, absent from some of the press releases we've seen going around lately (like <a Jenna 2009-07-06T16:21:21-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/6/15/132813/384 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6929/nodenizen.jpg" class="top"> <p>Big surprise here: the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/12/AR2009061204068_2.html?hpid=sec-business">Washington Post did a big ol' rundown</a> of the Starwood-Hilton legal battle over <b><a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen hotels">Denizen</a></b> and there is no evidence that the Denizen brand is anything but, well, dead. If you're just tuning in, the Cliffs Notes go like this: a couple <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/starwood hotels">Starwood </a>employees who helped develop the W Hotels brand left S-wood to develop a similar brand for <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/hilton hotels">Hilton</a> called Denizen, and those execs allegedly stole a bunch of W trade secrets in the process &#151; now Starwood is suing Hilton for corporate espionage and it's a huge mess. <p>Now, several weeks after the media frenzy and initial wave of tongue-wagging that surrounded the scandal when Jenna 2009-06-15T13:30:21-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/6/5/153844/9876 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6929/nodenizen.jpg" class="top"> <p>Unsurprisingly, reports are coming in that <b><a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Hilton Hotels">Hilton</a></b> is doing what they can to settle their dispute (otherwise known as The Great <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen hotels">Denizen</a> Disaster) with <b><a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/starwood hotels">Starwood</a></b> out of court &#151; because, obviously, they're trying to keep the damage to their already-pretty-soiled reputation to a minimum. <p>In more official words, <A href="http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/31306-Hilton-poised-to-settle-out-of-court-with-Starwood-over-Denizen">Travel Daily News</a> printed: <blockquote><p>Hilton Hotels is seeking a negotiated settlement in its corporate espionage case with Starwood rather than seeing the legal spat battle between two of the industry&#146;s fiercest competitors aired in public, thereby avoiding further humiliation of its botched entry into the lifestyle hotel sector.</p></blockquote> <p>Uh, in cased you missed all these shenanigans (watch the drama unfold <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Denizen%20Hotels">here</a>): Jenna 2009-06-05T15:45:18-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/4/24/145239/528 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6929/nodenizen.jpg" class="top"> <p>We <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/4/21/113619/147/hotels/Hilton_Suspends_Development_of_Denizen_Hotels">reported</a> earlier this week that <b><A href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/hilton hotels">Hilton</a></b> had halted development of <A href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen hotels">Denizen</a></b> (per a Hilton press release), but now <A href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/starwood hotels">Starwood</a></b> is speaking out (i.e. issuing their own <a href="http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6653939.html?industryid=47562">press release</a>) saying that a judge has actually entered a Preliminary Injunction with Hilton, Mr. Klein and Mr. Lalvani &#151; the Starwood-turned-Hilton employees who allegedly stole the Starwood documents and trade secrets to develop Denizen &#151; enjoining them from: <blockquote><p>&#183; Developing further the Denizen Hotels brand. This requires that all internal and external design, branding, development, promotion, programming, staffing and marketing of the Denizen Hotels brand cease. <br>&#183; Engaging in any discussions or negotiations with prospective owners, developers and/or franchisees relating to Jenna 2009-04-24T14:58:16-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/