There are many movers and shakers in the hotel industry who create trends, break moulds and generally put cats amongst pigeons. Charles Forte and his talented family did with his eponymous hotel Empire in the 1980's. Anouska Hempel caused a stir with Blake's in 1982, Schrager with Morgans in 1984. Few innovations have caused as much angst amongst hoteliers as Barry Sternlicht and his 'W' brand. This first branded boutique by a large international hotel operator quickly became the most profitable brand in the Starwood empire and Sternlicht was credited as being the man behind the reality.

It was a shock then when an apparent palace coup saw Sternlicht leave Starwood hotels, a group he had built for over ten years into a major player. However Sternlicht and his Starwood Capital group, his own property investment company, quickly set about getting back into the hotel industry. Despite a stumble with his One hotels, still to materialise despite the large hole in the ground with his name on it in Seattle, Starwood Capital quickly acquired the Louvre Hotel group, consisting of 800 hotels operating under the names Kyriad Prestige, Kyriad, Premièr Classe and perhaps the best known, Campanile.

Campanile has been known to Brits for years as a road stop en route, where good food and a night's sleep could be found for a reasonable price. It was not unusual to see Brits carrying their own pillows as so many French hotels had traditional bolsters. Campanile was a very traditional French operation, claimed to be the largest budget hotel group in Europe with over 380 hotels. Typically four or five years ago booking rooms en route through France, I emailed the hotel to book. I subsequently found the email went to Paris where it was printed out and faxed to the hotel, who then entered the booking in a ledger, faxing confirmation back to Paris who them emailed it to me. Then the hotel lost it. This has now all changed...