HVS 2007 Hotel Industry Board Survey ranks Starwood at the top for the second time

"Our ninth annual study of board practices and performance in the lodging industry determined that Starwood Hotels was the best in market. This marks the second time that Starwood has topped the list of publicly traded lodging companies. The last few years there have been tremendous changes in the area of corporate governance and executive pay. We have seen new laws put into effect that have changed the ways from the %u201Ccrony boards,%u201D where board rooms of publicly traded companies were filled with friends or family members of CEO%u2019s, to laws for %u201Cindependent%u201D boards where there is no tie between the company and the CEO. This year we said goodbye to a few companies that have now gone private (Four Seasons, Fairmont and a number of REITs) and added Morgans Hotel Group."