W opens first hotel in China, plans 5 more in next few years

With parent company Starwood investing heavily in the China market over the past several years — and even moving its CEO there for one month in 2011 — it was only a matter of time before the stylish W Hotels imprint made its way to the Mainland. This past week, with the grand opening of a 317 room property in Guangzhou, W officially launched its long-term China expansion effort.

China Daily: Guangzhou is the first of five W hotels set to open in the Chinese mainland in coming years. Three - in Beijing, Shanghai and Changsha - are scheduled for 2014, while the W Suzhou is planned for 2017. The Chinese locations are nearly half of the 11 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region that the New York-based company plans to open by 2018.