in 1950, sheraton expanded internationally, paying $4.8 million to purchase cardy hotels, a chain of six properties in the canadian provinces of ontario and quebec. in 1956, sheraton paid $30 million to buy the eppley hotel company, which was then the largest privately held hotel business in the united states, with 22 properties across six midwestern states. in 1957, sheraton, which had previously focused on acquiring existing hotels, opened its first newly built hotel, the philadelphia sheraton hotel. in 1958, sheraton became the first hotel chain to centralize and computerize its reservations when it introduced "reservatron", the hotel industry's first automatic electronic reservations system. in 1959, sheraton acquired its first properties outside north america, purchasing four hotels owned by the matson lines on waikiki beach in honolulu, hawaii.