As part of a seven-year, $100 million contract, the companies are pooling resources and expertise to build a new global reservation system that will be managed by HP. In addition to vastly improved functionality, Starwood anticipates savings of $15 million to $20 million annually on its technology operating costs.

Under the agreement and in collaboration with HP, Starwood will completely re-design, deploy, manage and support a new hotel reservation system based on HP servers, the HP-UX and Linux operating systems, and industry-standard HP ProLiant servers. Anticipated to handle millions of guest transactions each year, the new reservation system will roll out in all of Starwood's distribution channels, including its world-class global customer contact centers, its proprietary websites, as well as its 750 hotels worldwide.

One of the world's largest hotel and leisure companies, Starwood is a leader in the hospitality industry, in which competitive success is based on a number of factors to attract and retain guests. Through adoption of HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy linked with Starwood's advanced technical approach and innovative business practices, Starwood anticipates gaining competitive advantage by synchronizing business and IT to capitalize on change and flexibility.

Starwood believes this will enable the company to increase occupancy rates in its properties, enhance its Starwood Preferred Guest customer loyalty program, and significantly reduce operational expenses.

"Starwood selected HP as our technology partner for this engagement based on its vision, expertise, flexibility and understanding of the consumer market, as well as its broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise technology and services offerings," said Robert Cotter, president and chief operating officer, Starwood.

The new system will replace Starwood's legacy, mainframe-based applications, allowing for an improved reservations process and enabling Starwood to better fulfill Starwood Preferred Guests preferences and special needs. Web reservations will be able to be booked in numerous languages, further expanding Starwood's reach in the global marketplace.

"HP is unique in that unlike our competitors, we offer highly flexible, collaborative and cost-effective services and solutions that deliver a richer consumer experience, a more innovative platform and the ability to ensure that customers such as Starwood can synchronize business and IT, all part of achieving an Adaptive Enterprise," said Jack Novia, senior vice president, Customer Solutions Group, and managing director -- Americas, HP. "We look forward to partnering with Starwood to develop and collaborate on the next generation of hotel IT to create new guest experiences and help elevate and differentiate Starwood's brands."

HP also will operate Starwood's messaging environment, provide network management services, assist with application development and integration, and support Starwood's multi-vendor server environment, including storage management. In addition, HP will build the infrastructure for and host Starwood's branded websites.

The global hotel reservation system will extend and comply with Starwood's service-oriented architecture model used across the enterprise. Starwood will supplement its resources with HP software engineers, developers and quality assurance resources to design, build and deliver the new reservations environment. HP also will take over the operational aspects of Starwood's core computing complex and provide a dramatically improved and robust disaster-recovery facility.

The commitment between the companies is intended to eventually allow Starwood to redeploy capital into its core business-building and marketing initiatives while increasing its ability to respond rapidly to changes in market conditions or customer demands and achieving a better return on investment.

About Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 750 properties in more than 80 countries and 110,000 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.

About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2004, HP revenue totaled $78.4 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

Linux is a U.S. registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions.