WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - April 12, 2006 - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) and its Starwood Preferred Guest program, the world's number one hotel loyalty program, is introducing a new online blog. 

Debuting today, TheLobby.com is a content-rich daily travel blog designed to create an emotional connection and foster a sense of belonging among the uber travelers that participate in Starwood Preferred Guest, as well as all travelers in search of exclusive, insider information on travel, destinations and more. 

With a focus less on the transactional and more on lifestyle and experience, TheLobby.com is meant to capture people's passion for traveling and hotels, as well as the unique camaraderie among globe trotting travelers who spend the better part of their life on the road. 
TheLobby.com's robust editorial section is led by Marc Schiller, CEO of ElectricArtists, and staffed with a team of travel writers recruited from popular travel-related weblogs. Notables from within Starwood's brands and hotels will also participate on the blog, including a regular column by Starwood associate William Sanders, a.k.a. The Starwood Lurker, who has been featured in USA Today, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for his candid participation in customer chat rooms such as Flyer Talk. 
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To help keep Starwood Preferred Guests on top of the latest travel trends, Starwood and ElectricArtists
have assembled a team of travel writers to contribute to this site. Every weekday this site will be covering
the latest and greatest in worldwide travel.

"Starwood Preferred Guest strives to be an industry leader and innovator. By creating an experience outside of the corporate box, we believe TheLobby.com will establish more personal relationships with members in a new and non-traditional way," said Robin Korman, Vice President of Loyalty Marketing for Starwood. "It's all about fostering a sense of community for our members where we can showcase and celebrate their experiences and passion for travel and provide access to great 'insider' editorial content." 

The Lobby.com will provide visitors with insider peeks into new hotels and guestrooms, secrets from the "back-of-the-house," chats with internal and external experts such as design executives, golf pros and chefs, destination pieces including cool places to go in hot cities penned by W concierges, how to play tough holes on resort courses by PGA players or associates' favorite restaurants and things to do in locations around the globe. Regular columns include "My Favorite Hotel," "Room with a View," and "It Happened Here." Other features include top ten lists and weekly contests and giveaways, travel tips and trend reports on fashion, travel and high tech gadgets. 

Starwood Preferred Guest offers members the ability to redeem awards at more resorts, more luxury properties, more European hotels and more golf properties than any other hotel program, which has proven to be a big draw for the world's most frequent travelers, and a significant competitive advantage. 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties.