Starwood 2006 Annual Report Download - page 63

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors and Shareholders of
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide,
Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, and the related consolidated statements of income,
comprehensive income, equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2006.
Our audits also included the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a). These financial
statements and schedule are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an
opinion on these financial statements and schedule based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about
whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis,
evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the
accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the
consolidated financial position of the Company at December 31, 2006 and 2005, and the consolidated results
of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2006, in conformity
with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also, in our opinion, the related financial statement schedule,
when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, present fairly in all material respects
the information set forth therein.
As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company adopted Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards (“SFAS”) No. 123 (revised 2004), Share-based Payment, and SFAS No. 152, Accounting for
Real Estate Time-Sharing Transactions, on January 1, 2006 and adopted SFAS No. 158, Employers’ Accounting for
Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans, on December 31, 2006.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(United States), the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31,
2006, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 23, 2007 expressed an
unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
New York, New York
February 23, 2007
F-2