Starwood 2003 Annual Report Download - page 68

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT AUDITORS
To the Board of Directors, Board of Trustees and Shareholders of
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide,
Inc. (a Maryland corporation) and its subsidiaries (the ""Company'') and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (a
Maryland real estate investment trust) and its subsidiaries (the ""Trust'') as of December 31, 2003 and 2002,
and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, equity, and cash Öows of the
Company for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003 and the consolidated statements
of income and cash Öows of the Trust for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003. Our
audits also included the Ñnancial statement schedules listed in the Index to Financial Statements and
Schedules. These Ñnancial statements and schedules are the responsibility of the Company's and Trust's
management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these Ñnancial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States.
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the
Ñnancial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence
supporting the amounts and disclosures in the Ñnancial statements. An audit also includes assessing the
accounting principles used and signiÑcant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
Ñnancial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the Ñnancial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the
consolidated Ñnancial position of the Company and the Trust at December 31, 2003 and 2002, and the
consolidated results of the Company's and the Trust's operations and cash Öows for each of the three years in
the period ended December 31, 2003, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the
United States. Also, in our opinion, the related Ñnancial statement schedules, when considered in relation to
the basic Ñnancial statements taken as a whole, present fairly in all material respects the information set forth
therein.
As discussed in the notes to the Ñnancial statements, in 2002 the Company and the Trust adopted Statement
of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, ""Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets.''
ERNST & YOUNG LLP
New York, New York
February 5, 2004
F-2