White Plains, NY – March 15, 2011 – Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) and its award-winning Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG) program today announced the launch of spg.com/resorts , a new website to help travelers plan and purchase the perfect resort escape.

Starwood’s research shows that leisure guests buy vacations based on the specific experiences they want to have while traveling. That’s why the new spg.com/resorts centers on what visitors will see and experience while staying at any of Starwood’s over 200 resorts around the world.  The site draws on images, including live webcams and actual resort footage, rather than words to show each breath taking resort. In addition, the “Discover Your Perfect Resort” search process, the new resort compare feature, and social media plug-ins all provide travelers with the most relevant content they need to pair the perfect Starwood resort with their vacation vision.

“One of our members’ favorite SPG benefits is being able to stay in our inspiring collection of unmatched luxury resorts around the world. We developed spg.com/resorts to make it easy for them to explore each of these incredible resorts.” said Chris Holdren, Senior Vice President of Starwood Preferred Guest. “The highly visual website highlights the experiential aspect of travel through stunning photography along with new resort search and social functionality.”

The launch of the site also coincides with the unveiling of the inaugural user-generated “SPG Member Favorites” list. For the first time, SPG invited thousands of its most well traveled members to identify their favorite resorts across the following nine categories: Best Beach Resort, Most Romantic Retreat, Best Exotic Escape, Best Family Experience, Best Golf Getaway, Best Island Paradise, Best Spa Indulgence, Best Winter Adventure and Best Small Wonder.  For a complete list of all SPG Member Favorites visit spg.com/memberfavorites . Additionally, SPG polled top travel professionals to identify the best Starwood resorts by region, including Best in U.S., Best in Asia and Best in Europe. For a complete list of travel professional recommendations visit spg.com/travelprofessionalfavorites.

To celebrate the launch of the site, the Starwood Preferred Guest program invites travelers to bid adieu to one of the coldest winters with the “SPG Pack Your Bags Giveaway.” From March 15 through April 14, 2011, a new Member Favorites category will be swapped out every Tuesday and Friday for guests to choose where they would like to win the trip of a lifetime. Ten lucky winners will receive a five-night stay, plus airfare, to the resort of their choice.  Members may enter once a day.  To view official rules and enter, visit spg.com/packyourbags.

About Starwood Preferred Guest
The SPG program’s breakthrough policy of No Blackout Dates at the world’s most sought after collection of hotels reinvented the hospitality loyalty program when it launched in 1999.  By creating a program centered on its members, SPG has developed the most passionate and knowledgeable membership base in the hotel loyalty space. Through its use of new technologies and innovative channels such as SPG.com, SPG.com/stayconnected, SPG.com/flights and others, SPG continues to innovate and lead the industry. By offering No Blackouts on standard rooms at over 1,000 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 countries, No Blackouts on hundreds of airlines, and once in a lifetime experiences available through SPG Moments at spg.com/moments, the program has proven to be a big draw for the world’s most frequent travelers, and a significant competitive advantage for Starwood.   For more information about Starwood Preferred Guest please visit SPG.com or call (877) – STARWOOD.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1025 properties in 100 countries and territories with 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element ^SM.  Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.