Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced that it has signed the most number of deals in 2012 than in any year since the economic crisis began, according to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood has continuously grown to be the world's second-largest hotel group by market capitalization with nearly 1,000 hotels across the globe. Starwood continues to expand and expects to have opened 71 new hotels in 20 countries by the end of 2012, strengthening its global lead and continuing to maintain its completion with the leading hotel groups around the world.
"Starwood's nine highly sought-after brands, powerful systems, unmatched portfolio and established local operating teams around the globe set us apart from our competition and position us well for sustained balanced footprint growth in both mature and developing markets," said Simon Turner, President of Global Development, according to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. press release. "Our agile and creative development approach allows us to adapt our growth strategies based on specific geographic markets or brand needs. 2012 was a year of strong deal momentum for us throughout the world and we are encouraged by a continued high level of developer interest in working with Starwood."
"Rising wealth and a growing middle class around the world are creating new demand for infrastructure, including new hotels, and Starwood is well positioned to take advantage of these trends," Frits van Paasschen, President and CEO of Starwood, said. "Our annual deal signings have increased progressively since 2009. Furthermore, the size of our overall cumulative pipeline and the quality of developers, projects and commercial terms are the finest they have ever been in the company's history."
Starwood has seen some magnificent openings in 2012 which strengthened its luxury lead in the global market. St. Regis had its major openings around the globe this year and other hotels like Bal Harbour in Florida, Mauritius and Doha were leading the chart.
Other hotels including the ones in Blue Mountains in Australia, Metropole Palace in Serbia, and Twelve at Hengshan in Shanghai, also set the mark high for Starwood's luxury standards. Starwood further expects to celebrate its 125th hotel in china in 201, which marks the Starwood's footprint expansion, according to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. press release.
