Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide expects another year of accelerated growth in North America, where it will surpass the 600th hotel milestone in the next two months. The company’s growth is being driven by the rapid expansion of its Specialty Select Brands, the continued growth of its Upper Upscale brands and increased demand for luxury hotel offerings. In 2014, Starwood opened 23 new hotels and signed 64 new hotel deals in North America, a 23% signings increase over the previous year and the most deals signed in one year since before the global economic crisis.
“North America remains one of Starwood’s most important global markets accounting for approximately 50% of our global portfolio and a third of our hotel openings in 2014, and we expect strong growth trends to continue this year,” said Simon Turner , President of Global Development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “The ongoing economic recovery and increased availability of financing are creating favorable conditions, contributing to strong growth across all three segments of our business and a notable surge in demand for new-build hotels, which comprised 81% of our North America signings in 2014.”
“We are experiencing robust growth across all nine of our globally admired lifestyle brands, both for new build projects and the repositioning of existing assets,” said Allison Reid , Senior Vice President of North America Development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “We highly value our relationships with our owners and franchisees, and continue to see strong interest from partners looking to leverage Starwood’s powerful brands and network, global booking platforms and loyal customer base.”
Starwood’s Specialty Select brands to open 200th hotel in North America in 2015
Starwood’s Specialty Select brands – Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft and Element – continue to lead the company’s growth in North America and will surpass the 200th hotel milestone in 2015. Last year, Starwood signed 53 deals in this segment in North America, marking the fifth straight year of increased deal signings, accounting for 83% of all of Starwood’s signings in North America in 2014.
Boasting the second largest global pipeline among all of Starwood brands, Four Points by Sheraton is on track to open its 125th hotel in North America this year. The business-focussed Four Points brand anticipates over 15 hotel openings in the region in 2015, including debuts in Las Vegas, Coral Gables, and Raleigh. Other key openings will include Four Points by Sheraton New York Downtown – the brand’s fourth hotel in New York City and Four Points by Sheraton Houston-Katy – its fourth hotel in Houston. Four Points by Sheraton signed 17 new deals in North America in 2014, the most in one year since 2007.
Designed for the next generation of travelers, Starwood’s Aloft brand will reach the 75th milestone in North America in 2015. The brand will open an adaptive re-use project in Sunnyvale, CA, later this year, on the heels of two adaptive re-use openings in 2014 – Aloft Tampa Downtown and Aloft Detroit at the David Whitney. This year, Aloft will debut in 12 new cities including New Orleans, Durham and Sarasota, while expanding its portfolio in the New York City metropolitan area with the openings of Aloft Manhattan-Downtown and Aloft Long Island City. Aloft Hotels signed 22 deals in North America in 2014, more than any other Starwood brand in the region and the most signings in one year since 2008.
Starwood’s eco-wise Element brand will reach the 15th hotel milestone in North America this year, with the addition of four new hotels, including debuts in several new markets such as Bozeman, MT; and Fargo, ND. Element will also open its second hotel in Miami (Element Miami Doral) and its second in Canada (Element Vancouver Metrotown). Element is on track to triple its global portfolio by 2017, fueled by the signings of 14 more deals in North America last year, the most in one year since its launch, including a deal for the brand’s first adaptive re-use project, opening in Moline, Illinois in 2017.
Demand is also on the rise for dual-branded Aloft and Element projects in cities across North America. Aloft and Element Boston Waterfront will both debut by early 2016, followed by Aloft and Element Fort Lauderdale and Aloft and Element Redmond in 2017.
Starwood’s upper upscale and luxury brands continue to grow
Starwood’s large portfolio of upper-upscale hotels under its Sheraton, Westin and Le Méridien flags is poised for another year of sustained growth in North America. In 2014, Starwood signed deals to open nine new upper upscale hotels in the region in the next three years.
Starwood will expand the North American footprint of its Le Méridien brand with this year’s debut in Columbus, on the heels of last year’s openings in Charlotte, Indianapolis, New Orleans and greater Chicago after a record year of signings in 2013. Westin Hotels will reach the 125th hotel milestone in North America in 2015, fueled by the success of its distinctive wellness positioning. This year, Westin will open hotels in Jekyll Island, GA; Austin, TX; Denver, CO; and San Jose, CA.
On track to open its 500th hotel worldwide in 2016, Sheraton Hotels, which continues to boast Starwood’s largest development pipeline – and the largest pipeline in its history – will add four new hotels to its North American portfolio in the next two years, nearly all of which will be new-builds. This year, Sheraton will open hotels in McKinney, TX and Mesa, AZ, and break ground in Georgetown, TX, coupled with strong and growing interest from owners and developers for both conversion and new build hotel opportunities throughout North America.
Starwood has more than 50 luxury hotels in the region under its St. Regis, W Hotels and Luxury Collection brands.
Following the complete renovation of The St. Regis New York, the brand will unveil the renovation of its iconic St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort later this year. The Luxury Collection will open three properties in the region in the next year, including this year’s opening of The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Antonio. W continues to re-create its cutting-edge experience for guests with hotel renovations in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, South Beach and Times Square, New York.
