Starwood Poised to More Than Double Presence in China

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced the opening of its 50th hotel in China –the Sheraton Jinan Hotel. The opening reinforces Starwood’s leadership position in China where it has signed 18 new deals in the past 10 months and remains on track with plans to double its presence by 2012.

China is currently home to the largest number of Starwood hotels outside of North America, and it has the largest pipeline of new hotels outside of the United States. So far this year, Starwood has opened three hotels in China: Sheraton Jinan Hotel, Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou-Dongpu and Sheraton Shunde Hotel. Through the remainder of the year, Starwood is expected to open four additional hotels: Le Meridien Qingdao, Le Meridien Chongqing-Nan’an, Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang and The Westin Tianjin.

Starwood was the first international hotel chain to enter China when the historic Great Wall Beijing Sheraton Hotel was established in 1985. Today it is the country’s largest international upper upscale and luxury hotel company and is making gains in the select-service market with the continued growth of the Four Points by Sheraton brand and last year’s launch of the Aloft brand in Beijing. Looking ahead to 2010, Starwood will introduce China to W Hotels and to The Luxury Collection.