de la Merced Barry Sternlicht made a fortune building Starwood ... And at Westin Hotels, he introduced what he called the Heavenly Bed, which quickly became a selling point for the chain.

Maggie Livingston relaxed against the pillows of her hotel bed. She flopped forward onto ... unattractive and uninviting,” Barry Sternlicht, then-CEO of Westin parent company Starwood Hotels ...

Barry Sternlicht's first attempt at building a hotel empire worked out pretty well: He started Starwood in 1991 with $20 million, and eventually sold a 1,300-property empire to Marriott for about ...