Starwood Hotels & Resorts Reviews in Stamford, CT

Current Employee – been working at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The company is in the Upper, Up Scale segment. We have fabulous properties around the world to provide solutions for our customers. You have the ability to travel and can experience many different career goals, if desired, both domestically and internationally. We are able to provide experiences to our customers like no company in our industry. Great work environment. Colleagues that are engaged and happy to be here.

Cons – At times, change happens and it is not always positive. Opportunities to learn from others is not always available.

Advice to Senior Management – listen to employees and drive change that affects everyone

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Starwood Hotels & Resorts as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Nice people, good benefits, a gym that was quite handy to deal with stress, relaxed environment. Good pay for the area if not top dollar.

Cons – Technology wise, Starwood is pretty backwards, the technology level is about 15 years behind the times, and not a very good place if you're seeking to learn from the best and brightest. Starwood had a period of extensive outsourcing and it shows, the codebase cannot be compiled without a lot of hacks, employs non-existent standards, obsolete technolgy, and a decade of offshoring has left the code a hideous mess. There is not a lot of training and to make it worse, the offshore personnel can be rather territorial with their knowledge. They will be polite but not overly helpful, and good luck if your task is dependent on offshore co-operation, there will be none unless you escalate the issue up and down the management chain. There is some effort to modernize the code, but the effort is medicore and half-hearted at best. Management is not very engaged, I didn't see my manager for 4 months after I was hired, so had to go it alone with solving my issues of wrapping my head around the technology and terminology. At the end I just left and while I miss the generous paycheck, my outlook in life has improved considerably. Starwood is a depressing and demoralizing place to work if you're a person who prides him or herself in being good with technology.

So in short, go for the outstanding pay (as long as you can last on the job), but don't expect anything but days of endless frustration and zero to none collaboration with your technical co-workers, most of them won't be there long as they're rotated in and out of the country frequently. Collaboration is non-existent, you will often find that your offshore co-workers just stub out your code checkins and not tell you why they did that. Your manager will most likely disappear for weeks and end, never return your e-mails, and seem to hope you'll magically fix everything beyond your control.

Advice to Senior Management – Instill some strong leadership. There needs to be a bit of cleaning house to instill technically-oriented managers who are not afraid of institutional pain to put some teeth into the modernization plans that have floundered for the past few years.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Hospitality! Great brands! Field organization can be very rewarding.

Cons – Current leadership team is in sustain mode taking advantage of the strong talent before them.
Marketing team lacks leadership. Personalization, blah, blah, blah. The innovation left this company when Barry departed. Starwood became Marriott under the current leadership team rather than differentiating and building upon it's heritage, unique brands. Infighting among top SVP level associates weighs heavily on their teams. Director level executives become the sacrificial lambs. So many unhappy people in Stamford...

Advice to Senior Management – Keep telling yourself Starwood is "innovative"

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than a year

Pros – the obvious: good hotel perks, fun brand to work with, people generally with a great sense of humor

the not-so obvious: most people in the stamford office HQs are ambitious, helpful and good-natured people. but even still, they are unhappy with their work lives and stressed out by their co-workers because of a constant need to please the senior managers. senior managers rightfully should have high expectations of their associates, but should equally reward good work with productive feedback and training. the latter is often missing.

Cons – - inadequate on-boarding for new hires across the board. you really have to fish for information and learn to seek out resources on your own.
- i can only speak anecdotally about my own group and a few others that i've heard about. but while there are proceses in place for "360-type" formal reviews, career development, coaching, etc., i've found that there is not enough emphasis placed on making sure that senior managers actually take the critical feedback provided by their associates and follow-through on making improvements.
- commuting is very difficult for nyc residents. if you want to keep nyc talent, you have to work on improving the shuttle schedule / allowing for more work flexibility

Advice to Senior Management – make it a real, financially-incentivized (if necessary) part of your "Big 5" goals to develop your people. they will be happier and more productive, and you will see the results in their work.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Employee rates at hotels; ease in moving from one hotel or brand to another; great work culture; innovative products; employee-led initiatives; employee feedback regularly solicited; great sense of (global) community

Cons – Large size occasionally means slow to move; salaries are not the most competitive; when times are tight, expect drastic operational budget cuts (in lieu of lay-offs, granted); mediocre time off benefits; those promoted to management do not always receive adequate leadership training; 'promotion from within' usually only applies to lower-paying positions

Advice to Senior Management – The message often gets lost in the middle. And sometimes doing more with less just burns out the less.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great hotels, really great people working at HQ

Cons – Lack of job rotation; some expectation to move out to property after working at HQ

Advice to Senior Management – better career tracking, coaching & mentoring.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Starwood Hotels & Resorts full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Big company with prestige, lots of innovation going on, great brands to work with.

Cons – In my particular department (and many others, but not all) there is no work/life balance, corporate offices are cold, most people are concerned more with covering their own butt than doing the right thing, too top heavy on senior high paid leaders.

Advice to Senior Management – Deliver on promises of things like "talent review," offer competitive benefits (CIGNA laughed at me when I told them my plan was with Starwood), remove ineffective leaders, develop and maintain career progression plans.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend