Starwood Hotels & Resorts Celebrates the Grand Opening of the Largest Customer Contact Centre in China and Announces "Spg One Million Starpoints Up for Grabs" Promotion

Shanghai, China (July 06, 2009) /ChinaNewswire.com/ — Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) today announced the grand opening of the largest dedicated hotel customer contact centre in China: Starwood Customer Contact Center in Guangzhou. In celebration of the grand opening of this Customer Contact Center, Starwood announces the launch of "One Million Starpoints Up for Grabs" promotion for all Starwood Preferred Guest members in Mainland China. By calling up the Starwood China Customer Contact Centre at 4008688688 from July 1 until July 10, 2009 to book a night or a stay at any of Starwood Hotels in China by August 31, guests will stand a chance to win 20,000 Starpoints. There will be five winners per day for ten days.*

"Starwood Hotels & Resorts continues to remain bullish on our long term growth opportunities in markets around the world. Today, China has the largest pipeline of new Starwood hotels outside of North America and continues to be a key growth engine for Starwood. There is tremendous potential for us in both domestic and international travel," said Michael English, Vice president, Customer Contact Centers & Electronics Distribution of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. "Therefore, it is timely that we set up a Customer Contact Center in China not only to provide our hotels here with improved support but to better position ourselves to take good care of the needs of our customers and build up deep loyal relationship with them as well."

"The opening of this Customer Contact Center also presents to us the opportunity to provide the local talent with training and job opportunities. The Starwood China Customer Contact Center provides varied job opportunities in the area. We are looking at having this center operate 24×7 to support both China and global operational needs for Starwood," said Qian Jin, Senior Vice President for Operations, China & Taiwan, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts currently has eight award-winning Customer Contact Centres globally, four in North America, one in Europe and three in Asia Pacific including Guangzhou, Singapore and Tokyo.

Focused on opening the right properties in the right places with the right partners, Starwood Hotels & Resorts remains on track with plans to double its footprint in China by 2011 with over 60 hotels in the pipeline. This year, the company will open more than 10 high caliber, best-in-class hotels throughout China, including Le Meridien Xiamen, The Westin Shenzhen Nanshan, Sheraton Jiangyin Hotel, Sheraton Shunde Hotel and Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu.

* Terms and conditions apply.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one o f the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 960 properties in 97 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(R), The Luxury Collection(R), W(R), Westin(R), Le Meridien(R), Sheraton(R), Four Points(R) by Sheraton, and the recently launched AloftSM, and ElementSM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

(Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and involve risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. These risks and uncertainties are presented in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained or that results and events will not materially differ. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.)

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Angela Feng
  Public Relations Manager, China
  Starwood Hotels & Resorts
  Tel: 86 21 6141 7716
  Email: [email protected]