

Pillow Fights at the Four Seasons - dangoldin
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/business/global/28four.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&em

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quizbiz
A lengthy informative article that might not get the reading it deserves.

Owning a hotel resort has been a dream job of sorts and with that in mind I
was surprised to read how The Four Seasons works, sounds smart...

    
    
       This might surprise even its longtime guests, 
       but Four Seasons — the company, that is — doesn’t 
       own hotels. It operates them on behalf of real 
       estate owners and developers, who typically call 
       this office in Toronto with nothing but a patch of 
       land and a checkbook. Four Seasons participates in 
       the design of the property and runs it, with nearly 
       total control over every aspect of the operation, 
       from the number of bell staff to the thread count of 
       the sheets.
    

But now owners are stuck with costly hotels they own but can't fully control
and don't know how to value.

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catch23
Seems typical. InterContinental Hotels Group does the same thing for their
Holiday Inn & Crowne Plaza brands. Hotel owners just sign up to be a Holiday
Inn franchise and IHG reaps the franchise fees year after year. IHG controls
every aspect of the hotel including pillows, bedding, promotions, even the
exact greeting text staff are to use. However, IHG does fully own their top
tier brand.

Just like McDonalds restaurant franchise, restaurant owners are welcome to
change their restaurant into something else though. The Four Season building
owners turn their building into a Holiday Inn if they wanted to.

