ITC Limited renews its partnership of nearly 4-decades with Starwood Hotels & Resorts

ITC Limited  today said it had signed an agreement with Starwood Hotels & Resorts to extend their existing partnership for 11 ITC Luxury Collection hotels and one hotel under the Sheraton brand.

The two also announced their three new upcoming ITC hotels under The Luxury Collection brand in India. The addition of the ITC Kohinoor in Hyderabad, ITC Narmada in Ahmedabad and ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata will take their inventory in India to 15 hotels, over the next four years.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc, is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with nearly 1,300 properties in 100 countries and over 188,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences under the renowned brands -St Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Méridien, Sheraton,Tribute Portfolio, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, Element, along with an expanded partnership with Design Hotels.

According to Thomas Mangas, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, ''Starwood is experiencing strong growth momentum in India with signings of new hotels in the past 12 months representing nearly 30 per cent of our current operating footprint in the country.  India remains one of our fastest growing markets and much of our success can be attributed to our long, collaborative partnership with ITC.''

ITC Hotels is one of India's largest luxury hotel chains. It operates under four distinct brands with more than 100 hotels in over 70 destinations. The 11 ITC Luxury Collection properties are: ITC Maurya in New Delhi, ITC Mughal in Agra, ITC Windsor and ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru, ITC Grand Central and ITC Maratha in Mumbai, ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, ITC Rajputana in Jaipur, ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad, ITC Sonar in Kolkata and ITC Grand Bharat in the New Delhi Capital Region. Other brands in ITC's hotel group repertoire are: 'WelcomHotel' in the 5 star segment, Fortune in the mid-market to upscale segment and 'WelcomHeritage in the heritage leisure segment.

''Through this extension, we have further strengthened our partnership with ITC Hotels to offer international and Indian guests unique experiences in these new destinations,'' said Dilip Puri, Managing Director India and Regional Vice President, South Asia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

This standing partnership between the two hospitality groupd came into being in 1979 with the Sheraton brand. In 2007, both companies signed an agreement through which Starwood introduced The Luxury Collection brand in India, which at present stands at 11 hotels.