Starwood’s relocation to Dubai to result in new deals

Dubai: The five-week relocation of global luxury hotel chain Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ headquarters to Dubai from Stamford, Connecticut in the US, will result in new deals, according to the company’s top executive.

The US-based hotel conglomerate concluded on Thursday its month-long headquarter move to Dubai, the only city after New York to have the largest concentration of Starwood’s hotels.

Asked if Starwood managed to sign any deals in the last one month of operating from Dubai, Frits van Paasschen, President and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, said the company “will have things to talk about” in the coming few months.

“[There is] nothing that over the course of the visit that we have firmly announced. But I can tell you that the development activity and some of the partnership work that we have done will lead to new deals that will be indirectly or directly a result of our visit,” he told Gulf News on the sidelines of a conference on Thursday, without divulging further details.

EXPANSION PLAN

Starwood aims to have 100 hotels in its Middle East and Africa portfolio by 2015 [and 100 hotels in the Middle East alone by 2019], according to Guido De Wilde, Starwood’s Senior Vice President and Regional Director Middle East. “By 2016, we will have 80 hotels in operation in the entire region, marking a 60 per cent growth in our portfolio,” he said.

The company said last month it will have nearly 50 new hotels opening over the next five years, adding over 14,000 guest rooms to the region.

With 14 hotels in Dubai and six in Abu Dhabi, Starwood plans to expand to other emirates in the country such as Ajman and Sharjah, said van Paasschen.

Being represented in the region today by eight of its nine global brands including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, St Regis, W, Aloft, Four Points by Sheraton and The Luxury Collection, Starwood will complete its presence in the region by launching its ninth [extended stay] brand – Element – in Muscat in 2016, said the company’s global chief.

KEY LEARNINGS

During the month-long headquarter relocation, van Paasschen along with his team of over 200 executives, met with 3,000 associates, conducted nearly 50 owner meetings and visited all 14 Starwood hotels in Dubai.

Asked about Starwood’s biggest learning from the relocation, van Paasschen said: “If I had to put a headline to my biggest takeaway, it’s higher awareness of the even greater opportunity that we have. I came here knowing that this is a growth market but in speaking with our owners and looking at their plans and their rationale from making those investments, I leave the region feeling even more confident there is growth here.”