Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is to open up to 30 new hotels in the Middle East over the next five years.

The new hotels include nine properties in the UAE, with four in Abu Dhabi and five in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman.

The new hotels will open under the different brands of Starwood, which owns or manages 50 hotels in the Middle East through its nine brands including Westin, St Regis, Le Meridien and Sheraton.

Starwood operates 992 hotels representing 298,500 hotel rooms, with 533 properties in North America and 244 in the Europe, Africa and Middle East region.