The strained world economy held vacation and business travel dwon in the first quarter, driving first-quarter profit at White Plains-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc. down to $6 million, or 3 cents a share.
The company said cost-cutting measures helped it squeeze out enough profit to beat the expectations of The Wall Street analysts.
The profit was a drop from the $32 million, or 17 cents a share, the company earned in the first quarter of 2008. The amount of money the company made per hotel room dropped 23.5 percent.
Earnings per share from continuing operations dropped to $7 million, or 4 cents a share, from $79 million, or 42 cents a share, last year. Not counting special items, the company made $25 million, or 14 cents a share, from continuing operations, down from $83 million, or 44 cents a share.
Revenue dropped 24 percent to $1.12 billion from $1.47 billion.
