Marriott's W brand set to enter Japanese market

W Hotels Worldwide has signed the first W Hotel in Japan. Long-standing Marriott International partner Sekisui House will own the W Osaka hotel while W Hotels Worldwide will operate the property when it opens in 2021. 

W Osaka is slated to open in 2021.

The 27-floor, new-build hotel designed by Osaka-based Tadao Ando will have 337 guestrooms with 35 suites once it is complete. The development site is near shopping on Gingko Street, Kansai International Airport, the Dōtonbori entertainment district and the Osaka Loop Line railway.

Marriott is set to add the W Osaka to its portfolio of more than 50 W Hotels now open worldwide. The new hotel will follow the recent openings of the W Shanghai–The Bund, W Suzhou, W Bellevue and W Goa. It will also follow the W Panama, W Amman and W Brisbane, which are opening soon. The brand is on track to have a 75-hotel portfolio by the end of 2020.

Developer Sekisui House has developed more than 2.3 million homes since its launch in 1960. The new W Osaka is the latest development from Marriott and Sekisui in recent years. The companies signed two hotels in Australia under the Westin and Four Points by Sheraton brands in 2016. 

Marriott's Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and JV partners Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia agreed to develop the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Central Park in June 2016. The new 297-room hotel designed by British architect Foster + Partners is slated to open this year as part of the Central Park mixed-use development. The groups are developing the Four Points on the former Old Kent Brewery site in the center of the Chippendale and Broadway suburbs. It is near Sydney's Central Station, the shopping, apartments, offices and student housing in Central Park, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Notre Dame and the Old Kent Brewery. 

The partners signed an agreement later that month to plan and operate the first resort-style Westin in Australia. The Westin Coolum Resort & Spa in Queensland also opening in 2021 will be part of a proposed mixed-use development with retail space and apartments. The Yaroomba beachfront hotel on the Sunshine Coast will have 220 guestrooms with nine suites. It will be near the Sunshine Coast Airport, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and nearby attractions, including Noosa, the Big Pineapple and the Australia Zoo.