Marriott Succeeds In Becoming The World's Largest Hotel Chain

Marriott International bought the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for $13 billion on Friday morning. Resulting to the acquisition of Starwood's Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis properties, the company increased its reputation as several of the best-known names in travel are now united in Marriott.

The Jakarta Post says that over 30 hotel brands are now under the Marriott umbrella which makes it the largest hotel chain in the world with more than 5,800 properties and 1.1 million rooms in more than 110 countries. According to STR, a firm that tracks hotel data, Marriott has also overthrown Hilton Worldwide's 773,000 rooms and the 766,000 that are part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group family.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said, "We've got an ability to offer just that much more choice. A choice in locations, a choice in the kind of hotel, a choice in the amount a customer needs to spend,"

Sorenson added that Starwood's guest loyalty program - Starwood Preferred Guest - was also a "central, strategic rationale for the transaction," The reason behind this is that the program's members are deeply loyal to it, have generally higher incomes and tend to spend many nights on the road.

Starwood became available in the market in April 2015 after The Stamford, Connecticut, company had difficulties to grow as fast as its rivals, specifically in "limited service hotels," which are smaller properties without restaurants or banquet halls. These are mostly situated on the side of the highway, near airports or in suburban office parks.

To win over Starwood, Marriott had to outbid China's Anbang Insurance Group. U.S. and European anti-trust regulators immediately approve the sale but the Chinese government hesitated which delayed the sale by months.

Skift says that the purchase gives Marriott more leverage with corporate travel departments who always look for a particular giant chain to house all of their employees. This also results to Marriott having more power over Expedia and Priceline, the two giant online travel agencies.