Operational Risks
Our lodging operations are subject to international, national, and regional conditions. Because we conduct our business on a national and international platform, our activities are susceptible to changes in the performance of regional and global economies. In recent years, our business has been hurt by decreases in travel resulting from recent economic conditions, the military action in Iraq, and the heightened travel security measures that have resulted from the threat of further terrorism. Our future economic performance is similarly affected by the economic environment in the United States and other regions, which remains affected by the current worldwide economic weakness, the resulting unknown pace of business travel, and the occurrence of any future incidents in the countries where we operate.

The growing significance of our operations outside of the United States also makes us increasingly susceptible to the risks of doing business internationally, which could lower our revenues, increase our costs, reduce our profits or disrupt our business. We currently operate or franchise hotels and resorts in 68 countries, our operations outside the United States represented approximately 16 percent of our revenues in 2009, and we expect that the international share of our total revenues will increase in future years. As a result, we are increasingly exposed to a number of challenges and risks associated with doing business outside the United States, including those listed below, any of which could reduce our revenues or profits, increase our costs, or disrupt our business: (1) compliance with complex and changing laws, regulations and policies of foreign governments that may impact our operations, including foreign ownership restrictions, import and export controls, and trade restrictions; (2) compliance with U.S. laws that affect the activities of U.S. companies abroad; (3) limitations on our ability to repatriate non-U.S. earnings in a tax effective manner; (4) the difficulties involved in managing an organization doing business in many different countries; (5) uncertainties as to the enforceability of contract and intellectual property rights under local laws; and (6) rapid changes in government policy, political or civil unrest, acts of terrorism or the threat of international boycotts or U.S. anti-boycott legislation.

New branded hotel products that we launch in the future may not be successful. We may in the future launch additional branded hotel products. We cannot assure that our recently launched EDITION and The Autograph Collection brands or new hotel products we may launch in the future will be accepted by hotel owners, potential franchisees, or the traveling public, that we will recover the costs we incurred in developing the brands, or that the brands will be successful. In addition, some of these new brands involve or may involve cooperation and/or consultation with a third party, including some shared control over product design and development, sales and marketing, and brand standards. Disagreements with these third parties regarding areas of consultation or shared control could slow the development of these new brands and/or impair our ability to take actions we believe to be advisable for the success and profitability of such brands.

Risks relating to natural disasters, contagious disease, terrorist activity, and war could reduce the demand for lodging, which may adversely affect our revenues. So called "Acts of God," such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters and the spread of contagious diseases, such as H1N1 Flu, Avian Flu, and SARS, in locations where we own, manage or franchise significant properties, and areas of the world from which we draw a large number of customers can cause a decline in the level of business and leisure travel and reduce the demand for lodging. Actual or threatened war, terrorist activity, political unrest, civil strife, and other geopolitical uncertainty can have a similar effect. Any one or more of these events may reduce the overall demand for hotel rooms, timeshare units, and corporate apartments or limit the prices that we are able to obtain for them, both of which could adversely affect our profits.

Unresolved disputes with the owners of the hotels that we manage or franchise may result in litigation. Consistent with our focus on management and franchising, we own very few of our lodging properties. The nature of our responsibilities under our management agreements to manage each hotel and enforce the standards required for our brands under both management and franchise agreements may be subject to interpretation and will from time to time give rise to disagreements. Such disagreements may be more likely as hotel returns are depressed as a result of current economic conditions. We seek to resolve any disagreements in order to develop and maintain positive relations with current and potential hotel owners and joint venture partners but are not always able to do so. Failure to resolve such disagreements has resulted in litigation, and could do so in the future. If any such litigation results in a significant adverse judgment, settlement or court order, we could suffer significant losses, our profits could be reduced, or our future ability to operate our business could be constrained.

Damage to, or other potential losses involving, properties that we own, manage or franchise may not be covered by insurance. We have comprehensive property and liability insurance policies with coverage features and insured limits that we believe are customary. Market forces beyond our control may nonetheless limit the scope of insurance coverage that we can obtain and our ability to obtain coverage at reasonable rates. Certain types of losses, generally of a catastrophic nature, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods, or terrorist acts, may be uninsurable or too expensive to justify obtaining insurance. As a result, we may not be successful in obtaining insurance without increases in cost or decreases in coverage levels. In addition, in the event of a substantial loss, the insurance coverage we carry may not be sufficient to pay the full market value or replacement cost of our lost investment or that of hotel owners or in some cases could result in certain losses being totally uninsured. As a result, we could lose some or all of the capital we have invested in a property, as well as the anticipated future revenue from the property, and we could remain obligated for guarantees, debt, or other financial obligations related to the property.

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