Luxury Hotels of World

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) is a hospitality ownership, management, and franchise organization based in White Plains, New York. 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 about 145,000 people, of whom approximately 36% were employed in the United States.

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. 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.

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