Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel

While others scale back, one company builds up

Nov 20, 2009
http://www.9news.com/money/article.aspx?storyid=127255&catid=344

Rather than cutting back during the recession and spending less, one hotel chain, with several locations in Denver, has done the exact opposite.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts have put a lot into its Sheraton, Westin and Aloft hotels here in Colorado. On 9NEWS 7a.m. the company's President and CEO Frits Van Paasschen talked about why when all the other companies are running away, his company is moving full steam ahead.

The Sheraton downtown held a grand re-opening on Thursday to unveil the newly renovated hotel.

"We think of it almost as a total makeover," Van Paasschen said. "It was a $70 million renovation over the last year and a half. We did every room, we did the beds, the public areas, and we put in a big gym. It's really a new hotel.

"This is part of a major investment program that we've been undertaking around the world. We're putting about $6 billion into the Sheraton brand, to make ourselves ready for when business really does start to come back."

Van Paasschen said his company is working to position itself well when the economic recovery happens.

"What we've seen over the years, is investing and having your hotels in the best shape possible at the bottom of a cycle is actually a great time to do that. Then for all the years as a business cycle comes back you've got a really fresh product. In fact about 60 percent of our hotels today are either newly renovated in the last three years or are brand new like the Alofts we have in Denver," Van Paasschen said.