Joyce Minor, the lodging analyst for Lehman Brothers, said that Promus had been especially astute at stressing and enforcing quality.

Mark Mutkowski, senior lodging analyst at BT Alex. Brown, said the arbitragers would like more cash to justify the risk they have taken.

"There are things like mandatory housekeeping charges at more and more resorts," said Bjorn Hanson, a lodging analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The high-priced chains may gain other advantages as well, says John Rohs, a lodging analyst at Schroder Wertheim.

Jason N. Ader, a lodging analyst at Bear, Stearns, has valued Caesars at about $3 billion.

"In the 90's," said Mark Keiser, a lodging analyst at Bear, Stearns who advised Blackstone on the acquisition, "surveys found there was an enormous demand."

"The acquisition makes strategic sense," said Mark Mutkoski, the senior lodging analyst BT Securities Corporation.

The cases are becoming less common in the hotel business, said Bjorn Hanson, a lodging analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers who has conducted extensive research on hotel surcharges.

J. Cogan, a lodging analyst with Banc of America Securities, says Starwood has been hurt in part by its own optimism.

"It's very much a buyer's market," said Bjorn Hanson, a lodging analyst at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in New York.