Starwood tops 100 in China

With recent hotel openings in Ningbo, Sanya, Yangzhou and Xian, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has surpassed the opening of its 100th operating hotel in China with plans to open 15 additional hotels by the end of this year. With eight hotels already opened in the first quarter of 2012, Starwood will open a total of 23 hotels in China in 2012, which is on pace with 2011 openings making 2012 the second consecutive year the company has opened a record number of hotels here in any one year. “In addition to the record-breaking pace at which we are opening hotels in China, we’ve signed 12 new deals in the first three months of 2012 and Greater China accounts for 44% of our global pipeline driven by an ever-increasing Chinese domestic travel market, as well as the fast-growing international inbound market,”said Starwood president Frits van Paasschen. “Additionally, China continues to be the richest source of new Starwood guests with more than 600,000 active Starwood Preferred Guest members which is up 62% from last year.”Since Starwood’s landmark debut of The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing in 1985, China has now become Starwood’s second largest market in the world after the United States and Starwood continues to lead as the largest high-end hotel operator in the country. Looking ahead, Starwood’s growth in China is being fuelled by the power of its Sheraton (pictured is the Sheraton Macao Hotel) and Westin brands and, increasingly, the momentum of the company’s mid-market brands – Aloft and Four Points by Sheraton, which now boasts the company’s second largest pipeline in China behind Sheraton.