Starwood Hotels & Resort Worldwide , which operates the W, Sheraton and St. Regis brands, beat expectations with its quarterly profit on Thursday as company-wide cost cuts offset shrinking demand.

The world's No. 8 hotel group by rooms reported a quarterly net profit of $6 million or 3 cents per share, compared to $32 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, White Plains, New York-based Starwood reported earnings of 14 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 3 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue fell 23.7 percent to $1.1 billion from $1.47 billion.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Derek Caney)

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