Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

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Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: HOT)
Industry	Hotel chains, tourism
Founded	1969 as a REIT 1980 as a corporation[1]
Headquarters	White Plains, New York
Products	Temporary residence
Revenue	? US$5.91 Billion (FY 2008)[2]
Operating income	? US$638 Million (FY 2008)[2]
Net income	? US$329 Million (FY 2008)[2]
Total assets	? US$9.70 Billion (FY 2008)[3]
Total equity	? US$1.62 Billion (FY 2008)[3]
Employees	145,000
Website	www.starwoodhotels.com

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is a hospitality ownership and management organization, headquartered in White Plains, New York.^[4] One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its nine owned brands. As of December 31, 2008, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. owned, managed, or franchised 942 properties employing over 145,000 people, of whom approximately 36% were employed in the United States.^[5]

Contents 1 History 2 Brands 2.1 Sheraton 2.2 The Luxury Collection 2.2.1 Hybrid Brands 2.3 Westin 2.4 Four Points by Sheraton 2.5 St. Regis 2.6 W Hotels 2.7 Le Méridien 2.8 Aloft 2.9 Element by Westin 3 Starwood Preferred Guest 3.1 Partnerships 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

Starwood Hotels and Resorts was originally formed by the real estate investment firm Starwood Capital to take advantage of a tax break; at the time the company was known as Starwood Lodging.^[6] Initially, Starwood Lodging owned a number of hotels throughout North America, all under different brand names. The Westin Hotel Company was purchased in 1994 from Aoki Corporation of Japan. Starwood acquired the Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, and The Luxury Collection brands from ITT Sheraton in 1998.

In 1999, Starwood launched their "W" Hotels brand. In September 2005, Starwood announced the launch of aloft, a new hotel brand based on W. aloft Hotels catered toward business travelers. Starwood intends to have 500 aloft hotels worldwide by 2012. In 2005, Starwood purchased the Le Méridien brand, which greatly increased the company's operations in Europe.

In 2004, Starwood's founder and CEO Barry Sternlicht stepped down as CEO to focus his attention on his other firm, Starwood Capital. He remained on the Board of Directors until 2005. He was succeeded as CEO by Steven J. Heyer, and Starwood began selling a number of its company-owned hotels, instead focusing on becoming a management company and franchiser for its current and future hotel brands. In April 2007, Steven J. Heyer left the company on the request of the Board of Directors because of an issue with Heyer's management style and after allegations of personal misconduct.^[7] Chairman of the Board Bruce Duncan served as interim CEO until September 2007, when the company announced Heyer's successor, Frits van Paasschen.

[edit] Brands

(The following list of Starwood brands is chronological, according to each brands' launch / hotel opening)

[edit] Sheraton

Sheraton is Starwood's 'flagship' brand, providing luxury hotel and resort accommodation.

[edit] The Luxury Collection

The Luxury Collection brand was established when ITT Sheraton purchased the controlling interests of CIGA (Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company), an Italian hotel chain, in 1994 (ITT Sheraton was to one day itself be purchased by Starwood - see above).

ITT Sheraton kept CIGA's original logo (the four horses of St. Mark) for The Luxury Collection brand logo, however as of September 2009, The Luxury Collection no longer uses this logo; each Luxury Collection hotel now uses its own logo.

Many of The Luxury Collection's hotels and resorts pertain to their location or surroundings and vary in age and theme; the 552 room Palace Hotel, San Francisco, California USA was the world's largest hotel, many Luxury Collection hotels were once residencies for European aristocracy and monarchy, for example, Hotel Imperial in Vienna, Austria was once the residence of Prince of Württemberg. Notable guests of Hotel Elephant in Weimar, Germany include Goethe, Liszt, Johan Sebastian Bach and Leo Tolstoy.

[edit] Hybrid Brands

Some Sheraton and Westin hotels and resorts have their branding 'hybridized' with The Luxury Collection, much to the confusion of many guests. An examples of this would be the Sheraton Park Tower, London which is a Luxury Collection Hotel (while also containing the Sheraton name). Asia's ITC Welcomgroup Hotels, Palaces and Resorts top hotels are also Luxury Collection Hotel (while keeping their distinct ITC name).

[edit] Westin

The Westin Hotels and Resorts brand is Starwood's largest upscale hotels and resorts brand, and it is the oldest brand within Starwood.

Apart from its stylized font, Westin's official logo is seldom used. It is either red or black, which usually depends on the what the respective text color of "Westin" is.

[edit] Four Points by Sheraton

Four Points by Sheraton was launched in 1995 as a mid-scale hotel brand. Originally the brand was created by re-naming existing Sheraton "Inns" (a smaller, limited service version of Sheraton Hotels). The new name avoided the confusion some guests found in having two hotel categories (full service and mid-scale) with the same name (Sheraton).

[edit] St. Regis

St. Regis is Starwood's main luxury brand. The first St. Regis hotel was built in 1904 in Manhattan, and in the 1930s under head bartender Fernand Petiot introduced America to the Bloody Mary cocktail.

St. Regis' first resort property was St. Regis Resort Bora Bora, French Polynesia.

[edit] W Hotels

W Hotels is Starwood's luxury lifestyle / boutique hotel brand. Marketed towards a younger general crowd, the hotel brand was launched in 1998 with its first property, W New York, opening at 541 Lexington Avenue. The brand has since expanded internationally with properties opening first in Mexico City, Seoul, and Istanbul.^{[8][not in citation given]} The brand's first resort property is W Maldives Retreat & Spa.

The W Barcelona hotel, the W's first in Western Europe, was opened in October 2009 and has a futuristic design by Ricardo Bofill. The building is in the shape of a sail. It has 26 floors and can be seen from all over the city. It is situated next to the beach and has its own private access onto it. It also includes a Bliss spa, gym and conference facilities.^[9]

A new W Hotel was opened in the beginning of 2010 in Hollywood, CA with a Vegas-style nightclub called Drais (designed by Victor Drai) followed by the opening of a fourth hotel in New York City's Downtown District in August. The W plans to double its footprint by 2011 with hotel properties planned in Austin, Texas (2010), Taipei, Taiwan (2010), Marrakech, Morocco (2011), Guangzhou, China (2011), Bangkok, Thailand (2011), Paris, France (2011), Athens, Greece (2011), St. Petersburg, Russia (2011), and London, England (2011) and retreat & spa properties planned in Bali, Indonesia (2010) and Koh Samui, Thailand (2010). Future hotel properties in Singapore (2012), Milan, Italy (2012), Amman, Jordan (2012), Abu Dhabi, UAE (2012), Santa Fe, Mexico (2013), and Cairo, Egypt (2016) have been planned as well as a retreat & spa property in Riviera Maya, Mexico (2014) and the W Hotel's first ski retreat in Verbier, Switzerland (2012), bringing the total number of W Hotels to 55.^[10]

In 2005, the W announced plans to open its first condo-hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada as a joint venture between Edge Group and Starwood Resorts. The project was cancelled in May 2007 due to rising construction costs and the pull-out of Starwood from the venture.^[11] The W Hotel announced plans to open a property in Dubai's Festival City by 2008. However, due to the economic crisis hitting Dubai's hospitality sector, the W Hotel cancelled the project in July 2009.^[12]

[edit] Le Méridien

Le Méridien is a French-founded hotel brand formerly headquartered in the United Kingdom, with 130 properties worldwide. Le Méridien was initially owned by Air France and its first property was Le Méridien Etoile in France. The brand was acquired by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide in 2006.

[edit] Aloft

Aloft is a mid-scale, urban-style business / boutique hotel brand. The brand was launched in 2005 as a 'vision of W Hotels', a relationship similar to Four Points by Sheraton and its 'brand parent', Sheraton. It has been criticized for being too slick and formulaic.^[13] Starwood plans to debut the Aloft brand hotel in early 2013. The hotel will be in Cleveland, Ohio and part of the Flats Bank development. ^[14]

[edit] Element by Westin

Announced in 2006, this is Starwood's first brand of hotels intended to be environmentally friendly. The designs include energy and water efficient features.^[15] The first Element hotel opened in Lexington, Massachusetts in July 2008.^[16] As of April 2010, there are seven Element hotels in operation in Denver (Park Meadows), Las Vegas (Summerlin), Houston (Vintage Park), Dallas (DFW Airport), Ewing NJ, Lexington, and Arundel Mills (BWI Airport). Two Element hotels are scheduled to open within the next year, in New York City and Omaha, Nebraska. Element hotels are built eco-friendly from the ground up, from the floors made of recycled materials to energy-efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures.

[edit] Starwood Preferred Guest

[edit] Partnerships

It has a credit card partnerships with American Express (MBNA Canada Bank partnership replaced by American Express in 2010). Starwood Preferred Guest also has a partnership with 32 affiliated airlines allowing guests to redeem their points for flights under the "SPG Flights" program.^[17] According to Starwood Hotels & Resorts' corporate profile, the SPG program has over 41 million members.^[5]

StarPoints

StarPoints can be used by Starwood Preferred Guest Members(SPG) to redeem free nights at Starwood's hotel properties. In addition, they can be used for merchandise with their partners such as GAP, Westin at Home, Nordstrom and more.

Member Tiers/Levels

There are 3 main levels of Starwood Preferred Guest. First, there is the basic level, preferred. Next, there is gold level. Lastly, there is Platinum Level. Each level has better perks. They can be found on the SPG Website In addition to obtaining these statuses through hotel nights, all Starwood Vacation Ownership owners are automatically enrolled into the Gold Starwood Preferred Guest Program. Some owners of several weeks(5* Elite Owners)are enrolled into the Platinum Starwood Preferred Guest program.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Starwood hotels

• Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide official website

v • d • e Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Aloft Hotels • Element by Westin  • Four Points  • Le Méridien  • The Luxury Collection  • Sheraton • St. Regis  • W  • Westin Hotels