"Energy is a significant expense, and we have chosen Enron tohelp us properly invest in equipment and programs that willultimately reduce our energy costs," says Robert F. Cotter, thecompany's chief operating officer. "Starwood recently spent $1.8billion to improve the front of our house with extensiverenovations, new guestroom designs and stunning public areas.Today, as part of our agreement with Enron, we're investing $50million to reduce energy consumption in our hotels, resulting in ahuge cost savings and more environmentally friendlyoperations."

The agreement calls for Enron to supply or procure electricityand natural gas, manage energy infrastructure through theimplementation of energy-related projects and provide energy pricestability at the hotels. Enron, a producer of electricity andnatural gas, posted revenues of $40 billion in 1999 and $30 billionduring the first six months of this year.

"A decade ago, if we had tried to aggressively conserve energyin our hotels, it would have been very apparent to our guests, andnot in a good way," says Glenn Tuckman, Starwood's senior vicepresident of operations. "Light bulbs would have taken a fewseconds to turn on and would have appeared dim at first, the TVremote control would not have worked properly and the temperaturein guest rooms would have been erratic."