And the winner is....

 You voted for Sheraton. And , as I promised, here is the world's leading international hotel company story. The third largest hotel in terms of number of rooms. Owner of 450 hotels and resorts in 65 countries on 5 continents.

Sheraton exterior

 In 1937 Ernest Henderson and Robert Moore acquired their first hotel Stonehaven Hotel  in Springfield, Massachusets. Harvard classmates in 1910s, they wanted to create a network of hotels from which costumers could experience a consisted standard of service, which they could expect from  all hotels bearing Sheraton  name. 

Why does the "Sheraton" called this way? The thing is that Henderson's and Moore's earlier purchased hotels had the electric sign which bore the words "Sheraton hotel" and it would have been prohibitedly costly to change.

The early 1940 Henderson and Moore continued to expand their properties from Maine to Florida. There was some kind of competition between growing  Sheraton, Hilton, Pick, Knott hotel companies. But Sherayon turned the famous Hotel Kumball into The Sheraton Hotel Kumball which attracted guests like President John F. Kennedy. 

From that time on Sheraton brought innovations to the hotel industry, particularly with technological devices.  
Sheraton first used  the telex system for a reservation network. It was the first hotel chain which  introduced electronic Reservation system.
In 1965 Sheraton opened the doors to its 100th hotel - The Sheraton Boston  
In 1970 Sheraton updated Reservation system allowing customers direct access to reservations which is still in use today.

Henderson died in 1967 and the chain passed to his son, Ernest III. With the elder Henderson's death, Sheraton was up for sale. International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)-long the international equivalent of AT & T acquired Sheraton as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1968.  Sheraton fit well into ITT's line of consumer services, particularly as ITT already owned a rental car company and an airport parking company; the trend toward package travel service had begun.

Given this new ITT affiliation, Sheraton began to depend increasingly on consumer and market research when making development decisions.Ambitious plans were laid to fashion a global network of business and convention hotels, luxury hotels and resorts, as well as inns.

Howard "Bud" James, who became ITT Sheraton president and CEO in 1970, moving the younger Henderson into the chairman slot, is often cited as the reason that Sheraton moved so far ahead, particularly because he saw the value of decentralized management, domestically and globally. Sheraton's U.S. division, therefore, has regional managers who are responsible not only for their "own" hotels but six or seven other properties as well. 

After the early 1970s, Sheraton underwent a change in its development philosophy. Prior to that time, as was Henderson's way, Sheraton operated almost all of its hotel properties. Under the guidance of ITT, Sheraton evolved from a real estate company into a hotel management company with low equity involvement.  For Sheraton and the other prominent hotel chains, such as Holiday Inn, Hilton, Marriott, and Ramada, franchising and managing, rather than owning and operating, certainly had their virtues: financial risk was greatly reduced, and because of the elimination of depreciation.

By the mid-1970s, Sheraton was the industry leader in selling franchises and management contracts, which had by this time become widespread among the big national chains. 

Through marketing campaigns and incentives, Sheraton targeted groups to increase sales. One concept to differentiate Sheraton in a crowded, competitive market, was the Sheraton Towers, the first of which opened in Boston in 1970. The Towers, designed for the business traveler, were essentially hotels within hotels. 

Sheraton was highly successful in retaining repeat customers, particularly those in business. Such travelers along with the convention market, which is sometimes booked as much as ten years ahead of time, are an important part of Sheraton's business. 

Sheraton commercial 1979

In 1983, the new Sheraton chairman, president, and CEO, John Kapioltas, former president of Sheraton's Europe,  presided over an effort to bring to North America the same standards he had applied to five-star properties around the world

In 1986, a five-year internal reorganization of Sheraton began with the removal of the distinction between corporately owned and franchised hotels. In the company's early years, Ernest Henderson had stressed the importance of good reputation. By the mid- 1980s that reputation was suffering: wherever customers saw the name they expected the same outstanding service--although, according to Sheraton surveys, they did not always seem to be getting it..

Over a period of five years, Sheraton sold and/or canceled the franchises for approximately 60% of its franchised properties that could not or would not meet its standards. To set itself apart from the competition, Sheraton launched a new ad campaign, "At Sheraton, Little Things Mean A Lot,"

 By 1990, Sheraton had 161 corporately owned and-operated properties and 293 franchised properties. 

Sheraton continued to be in keen competition with Holiday Inn and the upscale Marriott Hotel chain, which had just edged Sheraton out of the number-two spot in number of rooms worldwide, for customers.