Starwood Hotels plans 18 properties by 2015

The company is also eying tier-II and tier-III cities in Maharashtra for business hotels.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has planned 18 new hotels across India by the end of 2015.

It will include cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur. It has recently developed  Four Points by Sheraton in Pune and Visakhapatnam with Duet India Hotels Pvt. Ltd.  The company is also eying tier-II and tier-III cities in Maharashtra for business hotels.

Commenting on the future plans of Starwood, Dilip Puri, managing director India and regional vice president, South Asia, Starwood Hotels and Resorts said, " Starwood considers India as the third largest market after the US and China. It has responded to India’s acute need for mid-market lodging by working with proven development partners to open best-in-class conversion and new-build hotels throughout this dynamic emerging market. We are also planning to develop hotels in the cities like Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad."

"We have a plan to aggressively increase our existing portfolio in India of 30 hotels by 60 percent by 2013.Four Points has in fact managed to fill the need-gap for a mid-market brand in the country," he added. Starwood has invested Rs 170 crore in Four Points Pune which features 216 rooms (168 hotel guestrooms and 48 serviced apartments).

This is the third property developed by Starwood followed by the other brands like Westin and Le Méridien in Pune. The other brands of Starwood includes St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton and the recently launched Aloft and Element SM. Out of the nine, the company has developed eight brands in India.