Four Points by Sheraton will open four new hotels in China this year.

These will be Four Points by Sheraton Changshu; Four Points by Sheraton Hangzhou, Binjiang; Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian and Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu.

Miguel Ko, president of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Asia Pacific, said, ‘Four Points by Sheraton is an ideal product for many markets in Asia Pacific because the brand caters to both mid-scale business and leisure travelers, while meeting the demands of meeting and event planners.’

Business and MICE is a good combination.

He said, ‘The strong demand for moderately priced lodging coupled with the increase in domestic travel in many Asian markets is helping to propel the brand’s growth to a level that is expected to rival that of Starwood’s luxury and upper upscale brands.’

Frits Van Paasschen, president of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, is alleged to have said — but it is London to a brick it is from a flack’s fertile imagination — ‘The uncomplicated positioning is unique and assures the Simple Pleasures programming is right on target for Four Points. It also complements the aloft brand’s bold platform, driving solid brand differentiation for Starwood in the select serve market.’
Source: ETBMICE.com

The hotel building boom in China continues undiminished. Luxury hotel operator Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to add 70 new properties in China in the next three years.

Oliver Bonke, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at Starwood Asia-Pacific and seen in our illustration, said the Chinese hotels will make up the bulk of the 100 to be added across the Asia-Pacific region.

He said, ‘China will get more Starwood hotels than any other countries in the world.’

Oliver Bonke was in China recently signing hotel deals. The group now operates 40 hotels in the country.

Starwood has signed contracts for two Shanghai hotels and for a Westin and a St Regis hotel in Jiangsu provincial capital Nanjing.
That brings to 13 the number of hotel deals Starwood has signed in the first 11 weeks of the year. Last year, it added 50 new hotels in the country.

The hotel operator plans to open 15 new hotels in China this year. Its Aloft hotel, a limited service version of the W brand, is also expected to open in Beijing this year ahead of the Olympic Games in August. Five W hotels are planned for China.

Starwood owns eight brands including Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Westin, St Regis, Le Meridien, Aloft and W.
Source: China Daily

Starwood plans to set up at least 30 hotels a year in China over the next three years to sidestep a looming recession in its main U.S. market.

Starwood has 41 hotels in China, the world’s fastest growing major economy, and its Asian business has been bolstered by a regional travel boom. However, Asia Pacific President Miguel Ko said, ‘We will, in the medium and long term, be quite immune from a downturn in North America. In the short term, about 25% of our business is still from outside of Asia — 12% from North America — but that percentage is decreasing.

‘In the old days, the yield for Asian business was lower, but that has now changed. The Asian business is now yielding as attractively as the North American and Western European businesses in average room rate, consumption of food and beverage, and use of the facilities for the hotel.’

Starwood owns, operates, or has franchised 896 hotels across the world. It has 136 hotels in Asia.
The firm has sealed deals for two joint ventures to set up ‘Aloft’ hotels in China, each costing between $10 million and $15 million.

Starwood is reducing its investments in real estate and increasingly focusing on franchise agreements and management contracts.  According to its website in 2006 it sold 43 hotels for approximately $4.5 billion.

In China, the firm’s Sheraton brand is the most popular although the brand faces difficulties in the United States through uneven standards.

Rising wages, higher costs of living and a growing need for trained talent putting pressure on firm’s development plans.

Starwood plans to add 15,000 staff in Asia over the next three years — 98% to be hired locally — to add to the 36,000 staff already in the region.

Miguel Ko said, ‘I think the day when you needed a Caucasian man standing in the lobby as general manager to signal that it is an international style hotel is over.’
Source: The Guardian

More and more five-star hotels are being constructed in Beijing in a bid to open up before the Summer Olympics. The latest to announce its launch (scheduled for May 1st this year) is
The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang.

Part of a mixed-use complex along the Liangma River in the capital’s eastern embassy district of Chaoyang (the same district as where the Olympic Green will be), the hotel will have 565 rooms and suites, Heavenly Spa (The Westin’s own brand spa) and 1,100 square meters of function space including two ballrooms and 10 meeting rooms.

Pictured on the right is new General Manager, Daniel Aylmer, who has over 15 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, including three previous positions at Starwood hotels in China.
Source: PR The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang

It’s award time again. Starwood Hotels & Resorts was voted ‘Best International Hotel Group’ at the TravelWeeklyChina Industry Awards 2007 held in December. Two of its China properties were particularly recognized:

Sheraton Sanya Resort — ‘Best MICE facility and Service Hotel’
The Westin Beijing Financial Street — ‘Best Business Hotel’ and ‘Hotel Chief of the Year’ (awarded to GM Charlie Dang)

Qian Jin, Senior VP of Operations for China & Taiwan at Starwood, said, ‘It has been a fruitful year in which Starwood has successfully opened nine hotels and signed over 20 new hotel deals’.

In China alone, the group has 40 hotels and another 40 currently in construction. New properties include the first hotel under the aloft brand in China, slated to open in mid-2008, and a W Hotel to open in Hong Kong later this year.
Source: PR Starwood Hotels & Resorts and TravelWeeklyChina

With the Olympic Games scheduled to hit Beijing next year, major hotel companies have scrambled to get new properties in China open in time.

Hilton Hotels operates six hotels in China (the one in Beijing is shown here), but will more than double that in the next few years. In late August it announced an agreement to manage a new Hilton in the Wangfujing district of Beijing, set to open next year, and also has scheduled to open in 2008 a Doubletree in Beijing, a Conrad in Shanghai and a Doubletree in Kunshan, as well as a resort and spa in Chongqing. Three other Hiltons are set to open in China by 2011. In June, a joint venture of one of Deutsche Bank’s investment arms and private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific agreed to create and manage more than 25 hotels in mainland China under Hilton’s mid-price Hilton Garden Inn brand.
InterContinental Hotels now has 67 hotels open. IHG plans to nearly double that by next year, and future growth is particularly focused on Crowne Plaza.
Marriott International now has 27 properties in China, according to company spokesman John Wolf, and by 2010 will have 15 more: six under the Marriott brand, three under the Renaissance brand, two under the JW Marriott brand and four under Marriott’s mid-price Courtyard brand. In addition, the company will open six of its luxury Ritz-Carlton properties in China by 2010.
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has announced plans to open in China 15 new properties — three Park Hyatt hotels, three Grand Hyatt hotels and nine Hyatt Regency hotels. China already has more Hyatt properties than any other country outside of North America.
Wyndham Hotel Group has announced an Asia-focused investment management firm is investing $50 million in the master franchisor of the Super 8 brand in China, Tian Rui Hotel Corp. The franchisor already has opened 49 Super 8 properties in China and has agreements in place to develop 67 more.

Even with all those growth plans in place, however, travel managers said the region would continue to be a challenge as travel to the region increases. Travel managers often have to look outside of hotel offerings when planning Asia/Pacific travel.
Source: Business Travel News Online

Four Points by Sheraton has announced plans for its first hotel in Tibet. It is also opening Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang and Four Points by Sheraton Sanya Bay. These three new hotels are scheduled to open between 2007 and 2010 and quadruple the size of Four Points by Sheraton in Asia Pacific in one year.

Four Points by Sheraton hotels cover all the basics including a comfortable bed, a great shower, and free high-speed internet access. To this it adds warm pie, fresh coffee, free bottled water, and a wide selection of beers. It clearly understands the basic needs of the frequent traveler. You get the idea from the illustration.
The hotels are:

Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa which is scheduled to open this year. It is on the corner of East Lingkor Avenue and East Lingkor Road which gives easy access to the city’s primary tourist attractions, shopping areas and entertainment districts. 93 guest rooms, a meeting room, two restaurants and a lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang which is the first internationally branded hotel to open in Lianyungang. One of the first 14 coastal cities in China to open to foreign trade, Lianyungang attracts business travelers but also tourists for the nearby Yuntai Mountain and Liandao Island. Scheduled to open in 2009. 254 guest rooms, more than 14,000 square feet of meeting space, two restaurants, and a bar and lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Hainan, Sanya is a new resort hotel in which is arguably China’s premier resort destination. Sanya is not only a popular tourist destination, but also a political, economic and cultural hub and foreign trade port. When it opens in mid 2010, the 405 room resort will have three restaurants, a spa and health club and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

Source: BusinessWire

Opening in 2011, the St. Regis Hotel Tianjin will have 284 rooms, more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space, six restaurants, a spa and pool. So it is a MICE hotel being eminently suitable for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions but there is a fair amount of leisure thrown in there as well. St. Regis is a high end Starwood brand.

Tianjin is one of China’s fastest growing coastal cities. It will be St. Regis’ third hotel in China with the first two being in Beijing and Shanghai. There are plans to add a property in Tibet.

All of this is part of the upward parabola of Starwood. The company announced in June that it expected to sign about 200 new deals and open more than 80 new hotels this year, almost double the properties it opened in 2006. Much of its focus has been on the upscale and luxury markets, with much of the growth planned outside North America.

The company has also been expanding its W luxury brand overseas. Our illustration is of the St. Regis in Shanghai but it gives you and idea of the style and elegance.
Source: CPN

In Asia Pacific, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ aloft hotel has been announced for Beijing. (That is not ungrammatical. Think of the word aloft having a first capital letter which is understood rather than stated and you see it works.)

To appreciate these hotels you have to be fairly hip to the way advertising copywriters take an idea and then run it into the ground. Thus there is bar w xyz, re:charge fitness center and splash indoor swimming pool. And if I stayed there no doubt I would be ga.reth powell.

aloft Beijing will be part of an integrated mixed-use complex including offices, residential building and the recently signed Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian. The 200-room aloft Beijing will be located in Haidian district, a major information technology hub in Beijing with proximity to the Haidian government district, major universities and research institutes.

The hotel’s facilities will include 360 square-meters of meeting space, re:charge fitness center, splash indoor swimming pool and three restaurants all of which, of a certitude, will have daft names. As in re:fuel.

Miguel Ko, President of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Asia Pacific, said, ‘We have worked closely with key developers and guests across Asia Pacific to customize our prototype and signature features specifically for this market, to create an efficient product that guests will love. We are excited to be introducing aloft to Asia Pacific and are looking forward to introducing more aloft hotels to other cities in the near future.’

The centerpiece of the loft room is the ultra-comfortable bed, and large stylish bathrooms with oversized walk-in showers and amenities created by, more spelling coming up, bliss spa. Each guest loft is also a combination high-tech office and entertainment center, featuring wireless internet access and plug & play, a one-stop connectivity solution for multiple electronic gadgetry such as PDAs, cell phones, MP3 players and laptops — all linked to a large flat panel HDTV ready television for optimal sound and viewing.

The first aloft hotels are targeted to open in 2008. Some travelers may feel they are not stylish enough or hip enough for such a hotel. Would, indeed, lower the tone of the place. One feels management will look askance at my gray woolen cardigan with the moth holes and the odd food stain. Not quite the image.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

The saying used to be that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Looked at worldwide the same could be said of Starwood. In China Starwood Hotels and Resorts is working on the basis it will become the second largest travel and tourism destination in the world after the United States. So its policy is to sign more hotels at an increasing rate. After opening six new hotels during 2006, Starwood is expected to open 33 new hotels in the region within the next three years.

Some current developments:

Aloft Beijing, Haidian will be part of the recently signed Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian. Facilities will include 200 guestrooms, 3,900 square feet meeting space (think MICE), a fitness centre, indoor pool and three restaurants.
W Guangzhou Hotel & Residences in the economic centre of Pearl River Delta, is due to open in 2010. 320 rooms and suites, 167 serviced apartments, 16,000 sq ft meeting space.
Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu opening in 2009. 310 guestrooms, over 5,800 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, outdoor pool, health club and spa.
Sheraton Huadu Resort, Guangzhou is expected to open in 2009. It will have 97 villas with mountain and water views plus all the amenities of an upscale hotel.
The Westin Shimei Bay Resort, Hainan Island will opening in 2010. 40 villas, 124 rooms, 4,300 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, health club, spa, outdoor swimming pool and tennis court.
A Le Meridien resort is set to open on Hainan Island in 2008.
The Westin Xian should open 2010. 296 rooms, 11,300 sq ft meeting space, five restaurants, health club, spa and indoor heated pool.
The St. Regis Resort, Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous region is opening in 2010. 169 rooms, 9,000 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, health club, spa, indoor heated pool and business centre.
Sheraton Nanchang Hotel will open in 2011 as part of a mixed use complex including offices and shopping. 350 rooms, three restaurants, lounge, spa, health club, indoor pool and over 20,000 sq ft meeting space.
Westin Tianjin Hotel and Residences set to open in 2010. 300 rooms, 150 residences, four restaurants, health club, spa, indoor heated pool and 17,000 sq ft meeting space.

And that is probably a far from complete list. It is an astounding and extended increase in development for one country.
Source: eTravelBlackboard