Starwood targets Chinese with programme launch

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has launched Starwood Personalized Travel — a programme of initiatives designed to serve the unique preferences of Chinese travellers.

Debuting at 19 Starwood hotels in gateway cities around the globe, Starwood Personalized Travel offers what the company calls “a variety of simple, yet meaningful touches that matter most to the Chinese guest”.

These include in-room tea kettles, slippers, translated welcome materials and on-site translation services. Restaurant menus will also be made available in Chinese and feature familiar favorites like congee – a popular Chinese breakfast delicacy.

“As Chinese travellers begin to travel beyond their borders en masse, they, like their Western counterparts before them, will gravitate to the hotel brands they know from home, and with Starwood’s leading footprint in China, this gives us a great advantage,” said Frits van Paasschen, president & CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

“Just as our hotels in China have historically catered to American and European travellers with familiar amenities from home, now our hotels globally will provide the same services to Chinese travellers.”

The launch of the new programme coincides with the conclusion of the unprecedented month-long relocation of the company’s entire senior leadership team to China.

China recently became Starwood’s second largest hotel market outside of the U.S. and its fastest growing.

With 74 hotels in China and nearly 100 in the pipeline, Starwood will open one hotel there every two weeks throughout 2011.