Site name: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

URL: www.starwood.com Background information: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 960 properties in more than 100 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator, and franchisor of hotels and resorts.

Site name: Host Hotels and Resorts URL: www.hosthotels.com Background information: The vision of Host Hotels and Resorts is to be the premier lodging real estate company. Its focus is the acquisition of high-quality lodging assets in prime urban and resort locations that have the potential for significant capital appreciation.
Site name: FelCor Lodging Trust URL: www.felcor.com Background information: FelCor is one of the nation’s largest hotel real estate investment trusts and the owner of the largest number of upscale, all-suite hotels in the nation. FelCor’s consolidated portfolio is comprised of 87 hotels, located in 23 states and Canada.
Exercises:

a. Browse through the Web sites for the three REITs. What are the similarities and differences among them?

b. Who is the target market for each REIT?

c. What hotels and resorts are in the portfolio for each REIT?

d. Which of the above REITs is/are considered a “paper clip REIT”? How does it differ from a standard REIT?