Starwood Hotels & Resorts has been continually gaining momentum and with extensive growth planned, the company could be about to go into orbit.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide looks intent on becoming synonymous with the word growth. The company opened 74 new hotels in 2013, representing around 16,200 rooms in 22 countries, and signed a further 152 new hotel agreements in the same year — it’s fourth consecutive year of increased signings and the highest number of new hotel deals since 2007. Starwood also signed 75 contract renewals, up nearly 34% from the previous year.
In its fourth quarter 2013 Earnings Summary, the company revealed a 4.9% increase in worldwide systemwide RevPAR for same store hotels and exceeded profit expectations. And with another strong year predicted across all of its nine brands, it is little wonder president and CEO Frits van Paasschen is ebullient.
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“There is a global travel revolution underway, and the secular trends of rising wealth, rapid urbanisation and increasing digital interconnectivity make us as confident as ever about demand for high-end travel,” he says.
“As the largest high-end hotel company in the world, with a penchant for innovation, an unmatched portfolio of design-led brands, global properties and a valuable pipeline, Starwood is well positioned to benefit disproportionately from these seemingly unstoppable growth trends.”
Of the financials. Van Paasschen adds: “We ended 2013 with a balance sheet in the best shape it’s ever been and during the year we returned over half a billion in capital to shareholders through share repurchases and our dividend. From what we are seeing, the year 2014 looks to be a better version of 2013”.
President of global development Simon Turner says growth opportunities lie in the group’s “highly sought after brands, backed by the collective strength of our global platform and experienced, local teams”, which set Starwood apart from the competition, “allowing us to deliver unmatched value to our hotel owners”.
Going forward, his focus remains on finding “the right partners, creating the right properties, in the right places”.
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