Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ Sheraton brand is to open a number of new properties around the world in the next six months.

Opening this month is the 266-room Sheraton Porto Hotel and Spa in Portugal. As well as a spa and wellness centre and 1,750sq m of meeting space, the hotel will have panoramic lifts to the Restaurant Porto Novo with a ‘show cooking concept’.

In December, the Sheraton Bilbao in Spain will open to the public. It has been designed by architect, Ricardo Legorreta and is inspired by the work of sculptor, Eduardo Chillida. It is located next door to the Guggenheim Museum and the Congress and Music Hall Euskalduna and will offer 211 rooms, seven function rooms and a wellness centre with outdoor heated pool, gym and sauna.

In April the company will open the 238-room Sheraton Krakow, which will offer conference facilities, a ballroom, restaurant, fitness centre and swimming pool.

In May, the Sheraton La Caleta Resort & Spa will open on the oceanfront in the south west of Tenerife. It will contain 284 deluxe rooms including 20 suites and offer six restaurants and bars, a 500sq m conference and banqueting suite, a ballroom and three meetings rooms as well as swimming pools, beach facilities and a large health club and spa.

A year later, in May 2005, the company will unveil the Sheraton Salobre Hotel and Golf Resort in the south of Gran Canaria. It will boast 310 deluxe rooms and suites, 27 holes of golf, two restaurants and bars, a ballroom and three meeting rooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts and a health club.