Tag Archives: Bal Harbour

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Presents Business Strategy, Key Initiatives and Outlook to Inves

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Presents Business Strategy, Key Initiatives and Outlook to Investors

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYS: HOT) announced today that President & CEO Frits van Paasschen, Vice Chairman & CFO Vasant Prabhu and other senior members of the Company’s leadership are presenting Starwood’s business strategy, key initiatives and three-year financial outlook during its Investor & Analyst Day held today in Dubai.

Frits van Paasschen, President & CEO, said, “Starwood’s transformation over the last decade has delivered superior value to shareholders. Over the past five years, we have sustained innovation leadership while delivering excellent financial results. We have held the line on SG&A costs while significantly growing our global footprint. We have one of the fastest growing luxury hotel portfolios, the largest global upper-upscale (5 star) hotel platform and a sizable, high quality hotel pipeline. We have delivered substantial cash from continuing to execute our asset-light strategy, repositioning our vacation ownership business and from Bal Harbour unit sales. As a result, we have today our strongest balance sheet ever and have returned $1.7 billion to shareholders since 2008.”

“We are in a period of unprecedented growth in global travel, driven by the secular trends around the world of rising wealth, rapid urbanization and infrastructure development. As the leading global hotel company in high growth markets, and with a portfolio of coveted, high-end lifestyle brands, Starwood is well positioned to benefit disproportionately from these growth trends. Our brand-led approach, backed by the collective strength of our global platform, gives us an advantage that sets us apart from the competition and allows us to deliver unmatched value to our guests, corporate customers and hotel owners. With the growth from our high-quality global pipeline, the ability to drive rate in the low supply environments of North America and Europe, cash from vacation ownership and continued sales of owned hotels, we expect to generate strong free cash flow and continue to deliver market-leading returns to shareholders.”

Looking forward to the next three years, our outlook assumes a cyclical recovery continues in mature markets and rapid growth continues in growth markets. Assuming annual Worldwide REVPAR growth of 5% to 7% through 2015, 4% to 5% net rooms growth and stable net cash flow from our vacation ownership business, Starwood would generate:

News, Politics, Government

Miami's New Five-Star Stunner

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By Sarah Gleim, Contributor

Acqualina Resort & Spa is one of just two Miami hotels that scored the coveted 2013 Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star award. It’s the first time since 1996 a hotel has earned top honors in the Florida city. The Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star resort is located north of Miami Beach and minutes from exclusive Bal Harbour and Williams Island. Staying here puts you right on the beach—you’ll have access to four private acres to soak up the sun—as well three oceanfront pools where you can cool off under a red umbrella (the hotel’s signature color pops throughout the outdoor space) or spend the day in a reserved poolside cabana. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Styles & Fashion

Pucci's Radioactive Costumes, H&M's Design Award Winner, and the New Vogue

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By Robert Khederian


    All the bits fit to print here, in our daily news roundup.

  • The costumes Emilio Spring 2013 collection. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  • Did Anna Wintour lose the ambassadorship because of her boyfriend’s taxes? [Telegraph]
  • Ten individuals were arrested in Bucharest for stealing about $2.7 million of Giorgio WWD]
  • Vogue Thailand hit newsstands last week – and almost immediately sold out. The publication’s Editor-in-Cheif, Kullawit Laosuksri, is the first male EIC of any Vogue edition. [The Nation]
  • It turns out women owe the existence of high-heels to the men of the Persian military. The soldiers of the 16th century originated the heels as a way to hook themselves into their stirrups while riding into battle. [Jezebel]
  • Meanwhile, Dr. Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator at The Museum at FIT, says that we can attribute the ever-growing height of heels in the 21st century to an “acceptance of hypersexual shoe design as part of fashion.” [Style.com]
  • The upcoming exhibition Mannequin- le corps de la mode at Paris’s Cité de la Mode et du Design charts the evolution of modeling from the 19th century to the present day. [New York Daily News]
  • South Korean designer Minju Kim is the winner of this year’s H&M design award. [Vogue UK]
  • Hedi Slimane designed more than just the clothes in Saint Laurent‘s latest boutique in Bal Harbour – he was also the building’s architect. [Fashionologie Inbox]

Source: FULL ARTICLE at fashionologie