Marriott International has completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, creating the world’s largest hotel company.
Marriott now offers the most comprehensive portfolio of brands including leading lifestyle brands, a significant global footprint, and leadership in the luxury and select-service tiers as well as the convention and resort segment.
Beginning today (Friday 23 September), Marriott will match member status across Marriott Rewards – which includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards – and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), enabling members to transfer points between the programs for travel and exclusive experiences when they link their accounts later today.
New Marriott logo
The new company will operate or franchise more than 5,700 properties and 1.1 million rooms, representing 30 leading brands from the moderate-tier to luxury in over 110 countries. With the completion of this acquisition, Marriott’s distribution has more than doubled in Asia and the Middle East & Africa combined.
What does this mean for the UK?
– Marriott’s UK & Ireland portfolio now amounts to 80 hotels across 17 different brands, and makes up 15% of the total European footprint with over 16,000 open rooms
– Guests are offered unparalleled choice across a variety of brands in the UK & Ireland, from EDITION to Aloft, and Le Meridien to Residence Inn
– Moxy Hotels, Courtyard by Marriott and W Hotels are in the pipeline for the UK & Ireland
– Marriott now employs 8,716 staff in the UK & Ireland (managed hotels and above property only)
What does this mean in Europe?
– Marriott’s European portfolio now has 504 hotels open, with nearly 104,000 rooms open and nearly 19,000 rooms in the signed pipeline
– This takes Marriott International from the 10th largest hotel group in Europe to the third largest
– Marriott will be the largest luxury hotel company in Europe
– Marriott doubles in size in Italy, Turkey, Austria, Poland and Portugal
– New markets include Malta, Croatia, Slovakia, Monaco, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, Tajikistan and Slovenia
