WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
[NYSE: HOT]
announced today that Manhattan's Bliss Soho was voted "Best Overseas Spa" in a UK Conde Nast Traveller readers' poll. Bliss founder Marcia Kilgore accepted the high honor at Conde Nast Traveller's recent awards ceremony held in London. "Unbeatable ambience and facilities" and famous facials scored Bliss Soho the top billing to beat out luxury competitors in regions ranging from Paris and Bangkok to South Beach and Brisbane.
Bliss's hip Soho flagship opened in 1996. Bliss has often been credited with igniting the spa boom in the late 90's and starting treatment trends that attracted a host of young, career-minded 'spa-hoppers' who were eager to test out signature services like the Triple Oxygen Treatment facial, Carrot & Sesame Body Buff and Hot Milk and Almond Pedicure.
Starwood Hotels acquired Bliss from LVMH in January 2004. Future plans include launching Bliss Spas at select W Hotels, beginning with W New York and W New York - Times Square in the Fall of 2004 and W Los Angeles - Westwood and W San Francisco in early 2005.
UK Conde Nast Traveller posted the Readers' Spa Awards questionnaire on its website in 2003. Market Management, and independent market-research company, collated and analyzed the data. Figures in all categories are percentages representing overall average levels of satisfaction with the facilities or services.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 740 properties in more than 80 countries and 105,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. With internationally renowned brands, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W brands, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit
www.starwood.com.
41st NBTA International Convention & Exposition
