The November issue of HOTELS Magazine is what we fondly call our “Hoteliers of the World” edition, wherein we honor two individuals—one executive and one general manager—whom we deem illustrate what it means to be a trailblazer, leader and steward of the hospitality industry.
Our honorees this year personify all three. Barry Sternlicht is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, but, for me and many others, he’s the genius who created the seminal W Hotels brand, literally started a war—the bed wars, that is, with his comfy-as-can-be Heavenly Bed—and set the loyalty program bar with SPG. He did all this when, in 1995, he created Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which would later be sold to Marriott International. He’s now back with Starwood Hotels 2.0. We chronicle his journey from real estate tyro to titan.
Luca Virgilio is the GM of London’s The Dorchester, which is known the world over for its luxury trappings and high-profile clientele. It just got better due to a fulsome renovation led by the Italy-born Virgilio, who says that hospitality courses through Italian blood. He’s got plenty of it.
Both Sternlicht and Virgilio are high achievers; that’s obvious. It got me thinking: What are the characteristics of successful people? Grit, self-awareness, decisiveness are three of several such traits that define success. Another is adaptability, something Virgilio carried in spades as he directed The Dorchester’s renovation, which, for instance, necessitated moving the entrance to the hotel to a side emergency entrance. It meant running a hotel as entire floors were taken out, all the while continuing to operate its standout restaurants amid the racket.
You get the sense that comfort with failure is not in Sternlicht’s DNA, even though it’s often cited as characteristic of people who are successful. Despite a winning attitude, Sternlicht is still a humble guy—his background (which you’ll read about) is evidence of that—and the ability to learn from mistakes is something he doesn’t shy away from. Like he told me, “You learn more from your mistakes than from your successes and anyone who is on the playing field makes mistakes.” On the gridiron of real estate and hospitality, Sternlicht is a championship quarterback (though tennis, admittedly, is more his game).
Success is a continuous journey, not a destination, and both of HOTELS Magazine’s 2025 Hoteliers of the World recipients are testament to this. The roads to success may be paved differently, offer different exits, serve up different roadblocks, but both have navigated them with aplomb. It’s a ride that everyone can learn from.