The Starwood sell off continues. Earlier this week it unloaded the Bliss spa brand to Steiner Leisure for $100 million. Now Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc has announced that it has sold 24,700 square feet of retail space in St. Regis New York hotel for $117 million. The brand plans to use the proceeds to pay down debt. Starwood sold the space to GFC Fifth Avenue LLC, an investment group led by the Chera family's Crown Acquisitions and is is part of an ongoing push to streamline and chip away at its debt. As Reuters reports in its most recently quarterly earnings report, Starwood reported $3.36 billion in long-term debt.

W Hotels and Bliss Spas have been an unshakable combination for Starwood Hotels. But after a tough year for the travel and tourism industry Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has sold off the Bliss spa unit for $100 million to Steiner Leisure Limited. The Bliss and Remede brands will stay at the Starwood's W Hotels and St. Regis Hotels. Bloomberg News quotes Chief Executive Officer Frits Van Paasschen who said during a conference call in October that the company was looking at "assets that are non-core or that are so attractive that we can still get a good multiple."

The Bliss spa brand was founded in 1996 in New York City. The brand quickly grew and has become famous for its playful approach ot beauty and skin care treatments. The Bliss brand includes not just the Bliss and Remede spas but also branded products. Bliss products are also sold outside the spas through an e-commerce and catalog business and distribution in Sephora and many major department stores.

The brand is a natural fit for Steiner Leisure Limited which is a provider of spa services. The company operates spas and salons on 126 cruise ships and in 51 resort spas and two luxury day spas for brands that include Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Harrah's Entertainment, Hilton Hotels, Holland America Line, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Hotels and many others. Steiner Leisure also owns and operates five schools that offer degree and non-degree programs in massage therapy and,skin care, training spa professionals for health and beauty positions at Steiner spas and salons.

The night before I stayed at the Nines, in Portland, Oregon, I spent the night at the White House in Yakima, a bed and breakfast. It's actually a couple of bedrooms that are available to let on the second floor of the White House Café, which serves an amazingly delicious breakfast. But the rooms themselves weren't to my personal taste -- an exuberant bride/doily/doll meets shabby chic theme. I know that many people, particularly those who, say, enjoy weddings (I don't) would be charmed, but that's the chance you take when you stay at a B&B -- you are really immersed in a particular taste.

I've also had the experience of staying in a smaller hotel that was more to my taste, but my travel companion was non-plussed by it -- I'm thinking of Le Quartier Français in Franschoek, South Africa, where the Four Quarters suite is a cream and brown palette punched up with accents of bright hot orange and pink. I loved it, although I could see why it wouldn't be for everyone. Human variability in taste is why most hotels resort to the kind of utter blandness that has you calling the front desk in the morning to find out what city you're in.

So when I walked into the Nines -- a 331 room Starwood-owned hotel occupying the top floors of the former Meier & Frank department store in downtown Portland -- and one that's known for its distinctive interiors, I was really thinking about décor and what a challenge it is for a large hotel, to create rooms with some consistency that have a distinct yet relatively universally appealing personality.

Check out the photo gallery and let me know what you think, but I think the Nines manages to strike the right balance. The décor is described as "nostalgic modern", and the rooms are done out in rich brown, charcoal gray, creamy white and a Tiffany turquoise. There are a few fun frou-frou touches -- a beaded light fixture, for instance -- but nothing that should make a buttoned up business man feel uncomfortable (I assume, not being a business man or a man for that matter.) It also felt very Portland-elegant to me, if I were going to an affair in PDX, I'd hit a vintage shop over a department store. Beyond that, there's also a good sense of the local community, as the hotel commissioned some 400 original art pieces to display throughout the hotel, a library on the hotel's main level is stocked with a selection of books from Powell's, Portland's incredibly amazing book store, and Urban Farmer, the hotel's restaurant, works with local purveyors.

The Luxury Collection, a clique of hotels within the Starwood Group, is collaborating with private social network A Small World (ASW) to provide The Insider's View. The Collection already offers concierge services to those who have booked stays and offers guests -- even those who haven't arrived yet -- travel perks such as Luggage Liaison and advance planning. The Collection also maintains a "Cultural Calendar" of noteworthy events happening near Collection properties.

For ASW members, though, concierges will write articles around upcoming events -- such as Greece's Night of the Full Moon and London's Cartier International Polo Day -- that provide an insider's guide on how to have the perfect time. ASW members, whether hotel guests or not, can then interact directly with Collection concierges to get even more specific tips on where to go and what to do.

So while you might not know the best place to buy the best seats for the Venice International Film Festival... at least you'll know who to ask.

[Source: The Luxury Collection]

It looks like corporate espionage has sunk the fledgling Denizen Hotels brand. Hilton Hotel Corp. has announced that it has received a federal grand jury subpoena for documents regarding two former employees of Starwood hotels who switched camps and brought their trade secrets with them. Starwood has sued Hilton saying that Hilton used privileged information in the development of the Denizen brand. The employees, Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani have been placed on paid administrative leave pending review. The Denizen Hotel website is down and Hilton has announced that the development of the brand has been "temporarily suspended." Will the brand be resurrected after the case sorts itself out? My guess is that Hilton will rebrand the hotels as something else.

A new luxury hotel has opened in Portland, Oregon. The Nines is part of the Starwood Hotels Luxury Collection and is located in the historic Meier & Frank building which was built in several phases starting n 1909. The rooms are above the downtown Macy's and the project was announced back in 2006.

The 331-room Nines includes a 419-piece art collection, and rooms are decorated in turquoise and a rich espresso brown. Rooms have modern amenities like 42-inch high-definition televisions but also have green features such as dual-flush toilets. The hotel has a fitness center, club lounge and two dining and bar options including the Asian-inspired rooftop Departure restaurant and the Urban Farmer. The hotel represents a new level of luxury in a town where most hotel rooms are under $200 a night. Rooms start at $249 a night which The Oregonian reports is nearly twice the downtown average.

The Palazzo Las Vegas officially opened earlier this year and now, like its neighbor The Wynn, it's expanding into resdiences. Las Vegas Sands has announced that the company has reached an agreement with Starwood Hotels to create The St. Regis Residences at the Venetian Palazzo,. The new project is a collection of 398 private luxury residences under construction between Las Vegas Sands' Palazzo and Venetian resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

The residence will be available fully furnished with a choice of several different designer packages. They will range in size from 1,700 to over 10,000 square feet for a duplex villa with private pool. Prices on individual units haven't been released yet but the press release says that total sales for all units could reach as much as $2 billion which would put the average price at over $5 million. The St. Regis Residences are expected to open in March 2010. They will begin accepting VIP reservations this month and open a preview gallery in October.

The Grand Mauritian, a Luxury Collection resort and spa from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, "invites you to experience the magic of Mauritian hospitality in a truly luxurious setting." (I accept!) Located on the northwest coast of the island of Mauritius on Turtle Bay, on the Indian Ocean, the resort is set to open on July 1 and is the the Luxury Collection's first foray into the Indian Ocean and Africa.

The resort will offer 193 guest rooms and suites, all of which offer ocean views (some have private terraces and tropical outdoor showers); a kids' club; a 1,500 sqm Mandara spa with 11 treatment rooms; and a selection of upscale restaurants and bars. Spread over 10 hectares, the resort is bordered by the reef and ocean nature park on the coast with sugar cane fields behind. You'll find water sports and diving in the two swimming pools and on the natural sandy beach.

For business travelers, the resort has plug-and-play high-speed Internet access in the guest rooms; wireless high-speed Internet access in public areas; a business center; and venues for conferences, meetings and social events.

Check rates and availability here.

As my colleague Deidre Woollard noted the other day, Istanbul has become something of a hotspot for foriegn brands. In addition to the Christian Dior boutique she wrote about, Marc Jacobs, Chloé, Bottega Veneta and Jimmy Choo have all recently opened shops in the Besiktas district, aka the SoHo of Istanbul. The centerpiece of the neighborhood is undoubtedly Starwood's new W Istanbul (which she mentioned as well). This is the first European outpost for W, the fastest growing luxury hotel brand in the world with 22 properties and 18 more in development. Here's a tour of the hip new hotel which W constructed out of a row of beautiful 1870s townhouses. The W Istanbul features 134 luxurious guest rooms including 26 suites -- many with their own private gardens, terraces and cabanas -- a branch of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's New York hotspot Spice Market, a sexy Sip Lounge bar, and a signature spa. It also boasts spectacular views of the Bosphorus, the renowned waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

[via UrbanDaddy]

Visitors to Singapore have a new place to stay. The St. Regis Singapore is said to be the first new internationally branded luxury hotel to open in Singapore in 11 years. The 20-story hotel is next to the St. Regis Singapore residences which will be in two 23-story towers still under construction. The towers will be home to 173 residences, 92% of which have already been sold at some of the highest prices Singapore has seen. The hotel has 299 rooms and suites and has a ballroom, spa and a fleet of customized Bentleys.

The Singapore St. Regis has 34 butlers who provide personalized service. No self-service coffee bar here, the butlers will prepare drinks and serve them to guests. They will also coordinate courses for room service, offering restaurant-like service in the privacy of your room. The butler service is available to all guests and several butlers are stationed on each floor who are available at the touch of a button. Room rates start at 680 Singapore dollars, which works out to around $465.

[via NY Times]

With airline miles the rewards are pretty clear, more miles generally equals free trips or the highly desirable first class upgrades, but what do you get for hotel reward points? The answer is more complex than you might think. The Wall Street Journal recently chronicled some of the more extravagant offers available to those with a large amount of hotel points. For example, Michael and Georgia Soares used their huge amount of Starwood Hotels & Resorts points to spend one night with John Travolta and the cast of the movie "Hairspray" at the film's New York premiere.

Loyal hotel chain customers sitting on a stack of points are in a good position as major hotel companies such as Starwood, Global Hyatt Corp., Hilton Hotels Corp., and InterContinental Hotels Group now offer customers enrolled in their loyalty programs the option to spend their points on "unique experiences" rather than just getting free nights or room upgrades.

Why are hotels offering these types of programs? One reason is that they want to create more loyalty and good publicity for their programs. Another reason may be that these once-in-a-lifetime offers often use up a lot of points. As customers rack up more points. hotels lose more money on points programs. As the WSJ article explains it, hotel companies often don't own many of their own properties, an independent party owns the building and manages the property under the hotel brand. The independent party must be paid for all of those free nights . A special fund is set up to pay the costs of potential redemptions of points and a hotel brand must make sure that the fund has enough money if all points get cashed in. Of course the VIP experiences also cost the hotels money.

The Starwood program is unique in that they have an online auction system that lets members to bid for experiences in online auctions. It's a pretty clever gimmick since it combines the "something for nothing" feeling of redeeming points along with the competitive thrill of online bidding. These types of experience trips also may help lure the traveler who earns his points on business travel into spending his points and his vacation time with the same hotel chain.

We covered the first 1 Hotel and Residences project in Seattle, now a second 1 has been announced, for the Buckhead area of Atlanta. Barry Hotel Partners and Starwood Capital Group Global LLC will be developing the 1 Hotel & Residences which will be part of The Streets of Buckhead, Ben Carter Properties's plans to turn eight acres of Buckhead Village into a luxury mixed-use district. The 1 hotel will be two towers with a spa in the middle and will be going for an LEED green certification. One tower will hold 175 hotel rooms and 48 condos and the other will have 50 condos. The Streets of Buckhead will also feature over 500,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, additional hotels and office space all arranged in a walkable cityscape area. The entire project is set to open in Fall 2009.

The Palm Jumeirah gets yet another hotel. Starwood Hotels have announced that there will be a W Hotel on the The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The hotel is scheduled to open in late 2009, and is W's second hotel in Dubai. The hotels will have 400 rooms and have beach frontage and views of The Palm, the Arabian Gulf and the Dubai skyline (as will all the other hotels on this crowded manmade creation).

Other hotels headed for the Palm include:
The recently announced Kingdom of Sheba
Donald Trump's hotel
Taj Exotica Resort & Spa and Grandeur Residences

Last year, Starwood Hotels launched "aloft," their new hotel brand. Now they have a new brand, Project ESW. Project ESW will be an extended stay version of the Westin Hotel and will include Westin features like the Heavenly Bed and the Westin Workout rooms. The hotels will be contemporary new builds with studios and one-bedroom suites. The kitchens will have stainless steel appliances and there will be gourmet pantries stocked with food and wine. Common areas include large lobbies, cafe areas, terraces and pools. Starwood plans 150 markets for Project ESW and the first one will open in Lexington, Massachusetts in late 2007.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts has reached a deal with the Costa Rican development firm Genesis to build a new luxury resort in the country. The ultra-luxury hotel will be under the St. Regis Brand, located on a 250-acre site in Playa Coyol. The hotel will feature 133 guestrooms, all with outdoor terraces, showers and day beds. There will be four spa suites for guests wanting the most private, pampered stay, in addition to an 11,000-square foot spa and fitness center elsewhere on the grounds. There will also be a world-class golf course. The Presidential Suite may rival the top rooms at other luxury resorts with a cliff-top location, private pool and three bedrooms. On the grounds, there will also be 49 condominium/hotel residences, 42 private villas and 9 large estates. They will be built primarily with indigenous material, making them environmentally friendly as well as luxurious.

The St. Regis Resort, Costa Rica is slated to open in 2008.