Starwood 2003 Annual Report Download - page 23

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market presence, enhancing the exposure of its hotel brands and providing additional income through
franchise and license fees;
¬Expanding the Company's internet presence and sales capabilities to increase revenue and improve
customer service;
¬Continuing to grow the Company's frequent guest program, thereby increasing occupancy rates while
providing the Company's customers with beneÑts based upon loyalty to the Company's hotels and
vacation ownership resorts;
¬Enhancing the Company's marketing eÅorts by integrating the Company's proprietary customer
databases, so as to sell additional products and services to existing customers, improve occupancy rates
and create additional marketing opportunities;
¬Optimizing the Company's use of its real estate assets to improve ancillary revenue, such as
condominium sales and restaurant, beverage and parking revenue from the Company's hotels and
resorts;
¬Continuing to build the ""W'' hotel brand to appeal to upscale business travelers and other customers
seeking full-service hotels in major markets by, among other things, placing Bliss Spa», which the
Company acquired in January 2004, in ""W'' hotels and expanding the W brand to resorts in non-urban
areas;
¬Innovations such as the Heavenly Bed» and Heavenly Bath», the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper
SM
Bed and
the Sheraton Service Promise
SM
;
¬Renovating, upgrading and expanding the Company's branded hotels to further its strategy of
strengthening brand identity;
¬Developing additional vacation ownership resorts and leveraging our hotel real estate assets where
possible through VOI construction and residential or condominium sales;
¬Leveraging the Bliss product line and distribution channels; and
¬Increasing operating eÇciencies through increased use of technology.
Starwood intends to explore opportunities to expand and diversify the Company's hotel portfolio through
minority investments and selective acquisitions of properties domestically and internationally that meet some
or all of the following criteria:
¬Luxury and upscale hotels and resorts in major metropolitan areas and business centers;
¬Major tourist hotels, destination resorts or conference centers that have favorable demographic trends
and are located in markets with signiÑcant barriers to entry or with major room demand generators
such as oÇce or retail complexes, airports, tourist attractions or universities;
¬Undervalued hotels whose performance can be increased by re-branding to one of the Company's hotel
brands, the introduction of better and more eÇcient management techniques and practices and/or the
injection of capital for renovating, expanding or repositioning the property;
¬Hotels or brands which would enable the Company to provide a wider range of amenities and services
to customers; and
¬Portfolios of hotels or hotel companies that exhibit some or all of the criteria listed above, where the
purchase of several hotels in one transaction enables Starwood to obtain favorable pricing or obtain
attractive assets that would otherwise not be available or realize cost reductions on operating the hotels
by incorporating them into the Starwood system.
Starwood may also selectively choose to develop and construct desirable hotels and resorts to help the
Company meet its strategic goals, such as the ongoing development of the St. Regis Museum Tower Hotel in
San Francisco, California which is expected to have approximately 269 rooms and 102 condominiums.
13