Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. aims to have 100 Latin American hotels under operation and development by the end of this year. Covering four brands across five countries, the company expects to open seven more hotels with a total of 1,300 rooms in 2013.
Currently, the company operates eight brands in Latin America: W Hotels, St. Regis, the Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Sheraton, Aloft, and Four Points by Sheraton. Four Points by Sheraton will debut in Lima in March, followed by Four Points Cancun in Mexico in July and Four Points Bogota in January 2014. The brand is now Starwood’s third largest brand with the second biggest pipeline. Another specialty select brand-Aloft-will add six new properties to its Latin American portfolio by 2015.
In the upper-upscale segment, Sheraton will open four new hotels-beginning with the Sheraton da Bahia Hotel in Salvador and the Sheraton Tucuman Hotel in Argentina in March-by the end of 2014. The Luxury Collection will expand to Peru with the Palacia del Inka in Cusco along with a location in Guadalajara, Mexico. With 85 hotels in 30 countries, the Luxury Collection remains Starwood’s largest luxury brand.
Starwood also plans to open four new W Hotels-including W Bogota in summer 2014, W Santa Fe in Mexico City in 2015, and W Retreat Kanai Rivera Maya, and W Panama City in early 2016. The brand expects to open its third in Mexico in 2016 with the St. Regis Kanai Rivera Maya.
“In the last five years, our footprint in Latin America has expanded considerably to fulfill the increasing demand in business and leisure travel that has resulted from rising wealth, global businesses and a digitally connected world,” says Osvaldo Librizzi, co-president of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Americas. “We believe that demand for travel will continue to increase in Latin America and to meet that demand, we aim to have 100 hotels under operation, development and management contracts by the end of 2013.”
