"St Regis is our top luxury hotel and most expensive to build. We are talking with various developers to bring in St Regis besides our other luxury brand W in India," said Starwood Hotels & Resorts regional vice president ( India, Nepal & Bangladesh) Don Elliot.
The US based hospitality company has 14 hotels in various stages of construction in India, of which 5 will be under four star brand Aloft, 6 hotels under five star brand Westin and 3 hotels under another five star brand Sheraton. The company will open three new Westin hotels in Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai this year.
The company currently has 21 hotels that it manages or runs under the franchisee model with an inventory of 5000 rooms. "Most of our new hotels will be run by us under management contract with developers. We do not own any hotels but if an exceptionally good opportunity comes our way we will evaluate it ," said Mr Elliot.
The company earlier had an exclusive franchisee agreement with ITC for its Sheraton brand but through a mutual agreement has roped in other developers as partners for this brand from 2008.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts runs 940 properties in 97 countries under various brands including St Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft and Element.
source | http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/