Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is an American hotel and leisure company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its 11 owned brands. As of 1 December 2014, Starwood Hotels and Resorts owned, managed, or franchised over 1,200 properties employing over 180,400 people, of whom approximately 26% were employed in the United States.

On November 16, 2015, Marriott International announced it would purchase Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide for $12.2 billion, creating the world's largest hotel chain.

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.

W Hotels

W Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide that is generally marketed toward a younger crowd than their other upscale properties. As of February 2013, W operates 46 hotels in 24 countries and is continuing to expand both domestically and internationally.

History

W Hotels was launched in 1998 with the W New York, a conversion of the old Doral Inn hotel at 541 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. The first few W hotels were mainly conversions of existing hotels already within the Starwood group. The W expanded its number of flagship properties quickly in the United States over the next decade and is now focusing its expansion efforts abroad for the most part.

W opened its first hotel in Europe in Istanbul in May 2008. The hotel, located in the renovated Akaretler Row Houses, a group of historic structures built in the 1870s to house the employees of the Dolmabahçe Palace, blends the traditional Ottoman design of the row houses with the contemporary feel of the luxury hotel chain. The W Barcelona hotel was W's first in Western Europe and opened in October 2009. It features a futuristic design by architect Ricardo Bofill in the shape of a sail and, standing 26 stories tall, it can be seen from all over the city. At the moment, the W Doha Hotel and Residences is the only W property in the Middle East and North Africa, though there are several properties currently in development for the United Arab Emirates and India. W's most notable properties under-development includes the 62 storey W MUMBAI also known as Namaste Tower.