Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) recently announced that it had signed a Non-Exclusive Master Agreement with D.I.H (Cyprus) Limited (an affiliate of Duet India Hotels Ltd.) and JHM Interstate Hotels India Pvt. Ltd. to facilitate the expansion of mid-market Four Points by Sheraton hotels in India.
Starwood entered India with its Sheraton brand in Mumbai in the year 1973. Last year, the company launched the “Four Points by Sheraton” brand in India and expects to expand it with Duet India Hotels, JHM Interstate, and other development partners, going forward.
The agreement was signed concurrently with the execution of the agreement for the Four Points by Sheraton Pune, Nagar Road. The Non-Exclusive Master Agreement includes Four Points by Sheraton Jaipur City Square, which opened in October 2009, and Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam. Four Points by Sheraton in Pune and Visakhapatnam are scheduled to open this
October.
Four Point Pune will feature 216 rooms and 10,500 square feet of meeting space while Four Point Visakhapatnam will have 122 guest rooms, and 6,232 square feet of meeting space.
Starwood remains on track to beef up its Indian portfolio. Currently, the company has 26 hotels in India under the brands of Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, The Luxury Collection and Le Méridien. By 2013, Starwood expects to increase this portfolio by 60%. Currently, Starwood has about 15 hotels either under construction or in newly developed stage in India. The burgeoning of the middle income group is an important driver for this major hotelier to expand its mid-market brand in India.
Starwood is poised to benefit from the increase in demand for hotels in markets outside the U.S., especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where the pace of economic recovery is faster. Other than the Chinese market, the hotelier is expecting India to offer significant possibilities for growth as the country is under-hoteled relative to its future demand. Additionally, India is expected to experience a meaningful increase in gross domestic product (GDP) within the next few years. Thus, we expect Starwood to considerably benefit from this strategic expansion, going forward.
Other hoteliers, which provide competition to Starwood are Marriott International Inc. (MAR) and Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H). Both hoteliers also recently announced plans to expand their businesses in India.
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