HotelChatter

Tags: Denizen Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Lawsuits / W Hotels / Ross Klein / → All Tags

The Origin of Denizen: Hilton Should Have Gone With 'The Quinn'

The hotel world is in a tizzy today about the lawsuit that Starwood Hotels has filed against Hilton Hotels, Ross Klein, Amar Lalvani and their just-announced new hotel brand Denizen Hotels. Already folks are dividing themselves into two camps: Team Starwood and Team Denizen. We expect t-shirts from Cafe Press to be ready within the hour.

In reading today's article from the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news online last night, we get the rundown of all Starwood's major complaints which allege that Klein and Lalvani stole trade secrets, brand profiles and even other Starwood employees.

The allegations are shocking and scandalous and while we do believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, we can't help but wonder what would have happened if Hilton Hotels had just used the rumored name The Quinn in the first place.

That's because Starwood is alleging that the name Denizen Hotels actually comes from a concept called "zen den" which was to be implemented in W Hotels. Zinger. Ouch.

Now, hearing that the brand Denizen may have come from "zen den", it makes the name seem less bizarre and a little more sensible than "denizen of the world" which is what Denizen Hotels have been touting since its announcement. But stolen goods are never cool. What about just using the name The Quinn instead? We liked that better!