http://www.hotelchatter.com/ Hotel Reviews, Hotel Ratings, Hotel Openings en-us Copyright 2008 - SFO Media 2012-02-14T09:27:53Z HotelChatter HotelChatter http://www.hotelchatter.com/images/hcwhite.jpg http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen%20hotels http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/12/23/93627/293 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/starwoodhiltonfight_1.jpg" class="top"><p> Merry Christmas to all! Your present from Santy Claus is never hearing about the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/1/15/95158/2656/hotels/Starwood_Alleges_Hilton_s_Hotel_Brands_are_Infected_With_Their_Secrets"><b>Hilton-Starwood Lawsuit</b></a> ever again! <p>That's because today <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Hilton hotels">Hilton</a> has agreed to settle with <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Starwood hotels">Starwood</a> over the failed <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/denizen hotels">Denizen </a> brand plans which were, as Starwood alleges, "infected" with Starwood trade secrets. Hilton had hired several key employees from Starwood, including W Hotels' <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/ross klein">Ross Klein</a>, who took with them proprietary Starwood information with which to create Denizen.<p> The total cost for Hilton to settle? <b>$75 million</b> which is reportedly the monetary payment they are now going to make to Starwood. Not only is Hilton $75 mil poorer but now Denizen is totally dead and never juliana 2010-12-23T09:59:10-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2010/1/15/95158/2656 <![CDATA[<p> <p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/starwoodhiltonfight.jpg" class="top"><p><i><b>UPDATE:</b> Starwood's Chief Administrative Officer has a statement on the new court filings below.</i><p> The drama continues in the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/4/17/11456/0680/hotels/Starwood_Sues_Hilton_for_Alleged_Theft_of_W_Trade_Secrets_"><b>Starwood-Hilton</b></a> lawsuit with Starwood filing new allegations yesterday saying that higher-up execs at Hilton knew full well that its employees were stealing Starwood's trade secrets and that two other Hilton brands--<a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/waldorf-astoria collection">Waldorf-Astoria Collecion</a> and <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/conrad hotels">Conrad Hotels</a>--are "infected." And they don't mean with swine flu.<P> <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2010/01/starwood-makes-new-allegations-against-hilton---breaking-news/1">USA Today</a> reports on the new filings which may have been prompted by the discovery of a whistleblower: <blockquote><p> According to Starwood's filing, the whistleblower told [Hilton CEO Christopher] Nassetta that "numerous manuals, detailed plans, budgets, marketing systems, building specifications and other proprietary documents from Starwood were brought to juliana 2010-01-15T10:03:59-05:00 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 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/