Starwood Hotels CFO: Middle East Turmoil 'Hurting Our Business'

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Escalating political turmoil and violence in the Middle East is blemishing a robust lodging recovery in global markets for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT).
The company, which swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, said the Middle East and Africa were the only regions that haven't fully recovered from one of the worst brutal downturns in the hotel industry.

"The political turmoil in North Africa, especially Egypt, is of course hurting our business," said Vasant Prabhu, vice chairman and chief financial officer of the hotelier during a post-earnings conference call Thursday. He noted Starwood has 16 hotels across North Africa that generated between $10 million to $12 million in fees last year.

"We expect that our fees will be hit in North Africa," he added. "It is too early to tell how we will be impacted, but this is clearly a risk that needs to be closely monitored."

Starwood's revenue per available room, a key profit metric for hotels, was up more than 10% in the fourth quarter of 2010 over the same time period in 2009, the company reported. It was up 9.4% for the year, following a decline of 20.7% in 2009.

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STARWOOD REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER 2010 RESULTS

WHITE PLAINS, NY, February 3, 2011

(NYSE: HOT) today reported fourth quarter 2010 financial results.

– Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Fourth Quarter 2010 Highlights

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special items, EPS from continuing operations was $1.08.

Excluding special items, EPS from continuing operations was $0.52. Including

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Adjusted EBITDA was $269 million.

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Including special items, income from continuing operations was $206 million.

Excluding special items, income from continuing operations was $99 million.

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in constant dollars) compared to 2009. System-wide REVPAR for Same-Store

Hotels in North America increased 10.2% (9.7% in constant dollars).

Worldwide System-wide REVPAR for Same-Store Hotels increased 10.1% (10.3%

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2009.

Management fees, franchise fees and other income increased 13.0% compared to

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approximately 100 basis points compared to 2009.

Worldwide Same-Store company-operated gross operating profit margins increased

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10.1% (10.9% in constant dollars) compared to 2009. REVPAR for Starwood

branded Same-Store Owned Hotels in North America increased 9.1% (8.1% in

constant dollars).

Worldwide REVPAR for Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels increased

􀂃

basis points compared to 2009. Adjusted for a non-recurring item recorded in 2009,

margins increased approximately 170 basis points.

Margins at Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels Worldwide increased 30

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compared to 2009.

Operating income from vacation ownership and residential increased $13 million

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contracts representing approximately 8,000 rooms and opened 23 hotels and

resorts with approximately 5,700 rooms.

Read More:During the quarter, the Company signed 37 hotel management and franchise 

Hilton Paid Starwood $75 Million in Espionage Settlement

Hilton Worldwide Inc. paid $75 million last year to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as part of a settlement agreement in a corporate-espionage lawsuit, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In its earnings statement Thursday, Starwood said it received the money in a corporate settlement in December but didn't identify Hilton. Still, the legal settlement with Hilton was the only one Starwood reached that month.

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Sheraton to operate Montreal airport hotel

Starwood’s Sheraton brand will open its third property in Montreal this April, a 476-room rebranded hotel close to the entrance to Trudeau International Airport.

The property was previously branded as a Hilton hotel, before becoming a Wyndham property for a short period and then an independent brand, and it is currently “undergoing a comprehensive multi-million dollar renovation to all guest rooms and public spaces prior to opening as a Sheraton property”.

Facilities include 19,000 square feet of meeting space, open air gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, as well as a whirlpool, steam room, sauna and fitness centre.

The rebranded hotel is scheduled to reopen in April, and will join other Starwood properties in the city including Le Meridien Versaille, Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel, the W Montréal, Le Westin Montreal, the Aloft Montreal Airport, and the Sheraton Laval Hotel.

Newark airport Sheraton shuttle bus gets stuck, strands family for 6 hours

NEWARK — A family was stranded early today for more than six hours on a Sheraton hotel shuttle bus leaving Newark Liberty International Airport after their flight to Hawaii was canceled, according to a report on the WABC-7 website.

Kristin Jones, along with her husband and three children — 8, 6, and 19 months — were aboard a hotel shuttle bus late Wednesday night after their flight departing from Newark to Honolulu was canceled. Also on board were five or six flight attendants, according to the report.

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London's new £200m hotel – where the owners want to check out already

London's latest addition to the hotel market opens next month, hoping to attract not only well-heeled guests but well-positioned buyers as it showcases what comes with its £200m asking price.

The W Hotel, in the grimy tourist ghetto of Leicester Square, is a no-expense-spared, 192-bedroom development that is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels on behalf of Northern Irish developers McAleer & Rushe, who bought the former Swiss Centre building for £47m in 2004.

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Baseball player, 14, dies after leaping from tenth floor of Sheraton

A freshman baseball player stunned his team-mates by jumping to his death from the 10th floor of a hotel.
Matthew Mezza, 14, suddenly left in the middle of baseball practice and dashed across the street to a nearby hotel in Santa Monica, California.
The next thing his shocked friends saw was the teenager throwing himself off the balcony of the Sheraton-Delfina Hotel.

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Starwood brings back Coca-Cola as exclusive soda partner

Sheraton, Westin, W and other Starwood-brand hotels will again start pouring Coca-Cola products, Hotel Check-In has learned. Starwood has signed an exclusive partnership deal with Coca-Cola, according to an internal article on Coca-Cola's employee website.


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Westin hotel owners write off €21.4m business loan

The owners of Dublin's five-star Westin Hotel, based in a building owned by Treasury Holdings, have been forced to write off a €21.4m loan given to the business.

The hotel, which is losing €4.5m a year, is owned by US group Starwood Hotels, but the property has been loss-making since it opened, accounts for Westin Hotels Ireland state.

In April, Starwood, which describes itself as the "principal provider of finance" to the hotel, waived all rights to repayment of loans worth €21.4m, plus accrued interest of €2.5m. The balance sheet of the company shows accumulated losses of €31.3m to the end of 2009.

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Investors buy Sheraton Safari near Disney

The Sheraton Safari Hotel and Suites near Walt Disney World has been bought for an undisclosed price and its new owners are planning a $25 million renovation.

AREA Property Partners and Winston Harton Holdings LLC, both based in New York City, announced their purchase of the 489-room hotel Tuesday. The companies said they will begin extensive renovations of the facility immediately, and plan to complete the project by spring 2012. Once renovated, the hotel will keep the Sheraton brand.

Located at 12205 S. Apopka Vineland Rd., the Sheraton Safari is just outside the gateway to Walt Disney World's hotel plaza.

Hilton and Starwood settle lawsuit over trade secrets

Hilton Worldwide and Starwood have reached an agreement in the unusual - and unusually nasty - feud that pitted two hotel giants against each other over corporate spying.

The unprecedented case started in 2008 when Starwood charged that Hilton - and two former Starwood executives who had joined Hilton's luxury hotel development team - stole documents to help Hilton develop its own version of Starwood's successful W hotel chain (Denizen) and rush it to market. A federal investigation was launched in April 2009 into the allegations, at which time Hilton grounded efforts to develop Denizen.


Newly filed court documents show that Hilton and Starwood's agreement:

• Bans Hilton until January 2013 from developing a hotel brand that would compete in the same category as Denizen, the W-style hotel that it tried to develop using information.
• Requires Hilton to make payments to Starwood; no sum is disclosed.
• Calls for Hilton to be supervised until January 2013 by two federally appointed monitors to, Starwood says, "assure that the conduct that occurred does not occur again."

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Moody's slashes ratings on bonds for Phoenix hotel project

A credit-rating agency has downgraded $350 million worth of bonds issued by the city-affiliated Downtown Phoenix Hotel Corp., reflecting a challenging debut for its Sheraton hotel near the convention center.

The downgrades by Moody's Investors Service of New York won't affect the entity's payments on the bonds, which carry a fixed interest rate.

They also won't add any pressure on general city finances, said Jeff DeWitt, Phoenix's finance director, who said bondholders still will be paid in full.

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Starwood CEO: Can too many hotel brands confuse consumers?

Hotel Check-In sat down with Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen last week at Le Meridien Philadelphia, where Starwood was showing off the chain's new direction to developers and a few reporters.

Starwood for the last five years has been busy overhauling the brand by, among other ways, infusing the hotels with art, focusing on design, refining the chain's service culture and ditching the lowest-quality properties. (I'll take you on a tour of the 38-year-old hotel brand's revamp and new direction another day.)

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181-room Sheraton Metairie - New Orleans Hotel sold

The Plasencia Group announced the company served as the exclusive advisor in the marketing and sale of the Sheraton Hotel in Metairie, Louisiana.
The seller was The Situs Companies as special loan servicer to a CMBS trust; the buyer was Songy Partners Limited of Atlanta in a joint venture with Aimbridge Hospitality and Argonaut Private Equity. The transaction, which closed in mid-October, was completed for a purchase price of $9.8 million.  

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Pebblebrook Hotel Trust Acquires the Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel

BETHESDA, Md., Nov 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Pebblebrook Hotel Trust /quotes/comstock/13*!peb/quotes/nls/peb (PEB 18.33, 0.00, 0.00%) (the "Company") today announced that it has acquired the boutique-style Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel for $102.8 million. The 310-room, upper-upscale, full-service hotel features over 10,000 square feet of meeting space, two food and beverage outlets and is located in Santa Monica, California, just minutes from the beach and all of Santa Monica's leisure attractions. The property will continue to be managed by the Viceroy Hotel Group. The transaction was funded by the Company entirely with available cash.

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Sheraton Room Attendants protest "Green Initiative"

Sheraton Toronto

(Hospitality Business News - November 20, 2010) Is it a “Green Initiative”, a cost cutting program during tough times, or both? Room attendants at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto think it’s a cost cutting move and is costing jobs.

According to a report by the Toronto Star about 20 hotel workers, politicians and labour leaders barged into a morning housekeeping meeting at the downtown Sheraton Centre on Thursday to protest a Green Choice initiative they say cuts jobs.

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Westin Hilton Head Resort Owner Files for Bankruptcy

(Hospitality Business News) -- The current owner of the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina and the Westin La Paloma Resort in Tucson, filed for bankruptcy court protection from its creditors.

 According to a story filed by Bloomberg, Transwest Resort Properties Inc., which also owns the Westin La Paloma Resort and Country Club in Tucson, Arizona, listed assets of $10 million to $50 million and debt of $100 million to $500 million in documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tucson.

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Lhasa gets first luxury hotel as Chinese tourists flock to Tibet

WEALTHY TOURISTS will soon be able to gaze out at the Roof of the World as a waiter expertly pours a glass of imported wine in the intimate, club-style setting of the Decanter bar at Tibet’s first luxury hotel – the St Regis Lhasa Resort.
For hundreds of years an isolated, mystical and poor enclave ruled by red-robed Tibetan Buddhist monks, Lhasa has changed profoundly since Chinese troops entered in 1950, and started to impose the dominant Han Chinese culture on the territory.

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STARWOOD REPORTS THIRD QUARTER 2010 RESULTS

Third Quarter 2010 Highlights

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special items, EPS from continuing operations was a loss of $0.03.

Excluding special items, EPS from continuing operations was $0.25. Including

􀂃

Adjusted EBITDA was $205 million.

􀂃

Including special items, the loss from continuing operations was $5 million.

Excluding special items, income from continuing operations was $47 million.

􀂃

in constant dollars) compared to the third quarter of 2009. System-wide REVPAR

for Same-Store Hotels in North America increased 10.6% (10.0% in constant

dollars).

Worldwide System-wide REVPAR for Same-Store Hotels increased 10.0% (11.1%

􀂃

Management and franchise revenues increased 7.7% compared to 2009.

􀂃

approximately 140 basis points.

Worldwide Same-Store company-operated gross operating profit margins increased

􀂃

10.8% (12.5% in constant dollars) compared to the third quarter of 2009. REVPAR

for Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels in North America increased 12.5%

(11.2% in constant dollars).

Worldwide REVPAR for Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels increased

􀂃

basis points.

Margins at Starwood branded Same-Store Owned Hotels Worldwide increased 110

􀂃

compared to 2009.

Operating income from vacation ownership and residential increased $10 million

􀂃

contracts representing approximately 4,500 rooms and opened 17 hotels and

resorts with approximately 3,300 rooms.

Read More:During the quarter, the Company signed 20 hotel management and franchise 

Starwood Posts Third-Quarter Loss on Hotel Sale Charge

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of the St. Regis and W luxury brands, reported a third-quarter loss after a $55 million charge related mainly to the sale of a hotel.

The net loss was $6 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with net income of $40 million, or 22 cents, a year earlier, the White Plains, New York-based company said in a statement today.
Income from continuing operations, excluding one-time items, climbed to $47 million, or 25 cents a share, from $25 million, or 14 cents. That beat projections of 22 cents, the average estimate of 23 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

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