Starwood Hotels beats Street; says 2010 murky

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT.N) posted a fourth-quarter loss on Thursday, hurt largely by a timeshare-related charge and expressed cautious optimism about the business environment in 2010.

The No. 8 hotel operator said travel demand has improved in recent months and group bookings were picking up. But the pace of bookings for meetings and conferences lags 2009 levels.

"After being buffeted by headwinds throughout 2009, our portfolio is set to begin a rebound in 2010 from a deep drop-off," Chief Executive Frits van Paasschen said in a statement.

Starwood said its loss from continuing operations widened to $186 million, or $1.03 per share, from $45 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, the company posted a profit of 51 cents per share, surpassing analyst estimates of 22 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 1.2 percent to $1.28 billion, topping analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Revenue per available room (revPAR) fell 7.2 percent.

Starwood was hit by a $362 million impairment charge after it halted the development of certain vacation ownership projects. The company was hurt by other charges related to severance and costs linked to five owned hotels.

For 2010, Starwood forecast a profit of 63 cents, besting the average analyst estimate of 56 cents per share.

Starwood projects the first quarter will break even or see a loss of 4 cents per share. Analysts expect the company to post a break-even quarter.

"Late-breaking business is a larger component of what will drive our performance in 2010 making forward looking predictions four quarters out particularly challenging," the company said.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)