In the "top 10" with more than 1,000 hotels: Starwood Hotels & Resorts further enlarges its leading position as one of the biggest hotel groups worldwide. According to TOPHOTELPROJECTS (www.tophotelprojects.com), the worldwide leading provider of global b2b hotel data and lead contacts, the US based corporation currently develops more than 330 new top hotels worldwide with more than 85,000 rooms. Starwood thereby closes the gap to the three largest hotel chains on the globe – InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 4,437 hotels/ 647,161 rooms,
Hilton Worldwide (3,689 hotels/ 605.938 rooms) and Wyndham Worldwide (7,152 hotels/ 605.713 rooms).
Starwood Hotels & Resorts focusses on India and East Asia for its international expansion. Since 1973 Starwood is present on the Indian subcontinent with currently 34 hotels under operation – another 24 hotels are currently under construction or in the development pipeline. By 2015 Starwood intends to operate 100 hotels under its nine hotel brands in India. Last year Starwood Hotels has opened ten new properties in India, Bangladesh and Ski Lanka. This year Starwood plans to open: The Westin Chennai, Velachery, Aloft Ahmedabad SG Road and Aloft Bengaluru Cessna Business Park, Le Méridien Mahabaleshwar Resort & Spa and Sheraton Chandigarh Hotel.
Starwood also sees huge growth potential in Asia: one quarter of all their operating hotels and nearly half of all new hotel developments are located in Asia.
During 2012 Starwood has opened 131 new hotels worldwide. That represents a 17 percent plus compared to the previous year. Starwood chef Frits van Paasschen is able to further rely on financially sound real estate partners when it comes to new hotel construction projects. Two-thirds of the new properties arise in one of the fast growing tourism markets. Consequently the first Starwood hotel in Tajikistan is currently in the project pipeline. Further properties currently arise in China and India, as well as in Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Hungary, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.