Guests who book directly through the Marriott mobile or SPG app will also receive free in-room Wi-Fi. “A choice in locations, a choice in the kind of hotel, a choice in the amount a customer needs to spend”, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson told The Associated Press in an interview. It operates through three segments: North American Full-Service, which includes brands, such as The Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, JW Marriott, Autograph Collection Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Delta Hotels and Resorts, and Renaissance Hotels located in the United States and Canada; North American Limited-Service, which includes brands, such as AC Hotels by Marriott, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites properties and Fairfield Inn & Suites located in the United States and Canada, and worldwide, which includes brands, such as Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, Protea Hotels and Moxy Hotels located outside the United States and Canada. Taj, which opened its first property in Mumbai in December 1903, has 108 hotels in the country in comparison to Marriott’s 79. Marriott Canada itself was beefed up early in 2015 when it bought the 38-property Delta Hotels Ltd. for $170-million (Canadian) from British Columbia Investment Management Corp. Sorenson said he believes there is a strong market to continue selling off many of those iconic hotels.
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The Marriott takeover of Starwood has been a rocky journey that has taken nearly a year to consummate.
The $12.2-billion merger deal announced in November a year ago will make the combined entity the world’s largest hotel company. Sorenson said the company did not have any immediate plans to change Starwood’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn., or its offices in NY.
Financial Times reported that The 21 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Marriott International Inc have a median target of 78.00, with a high estimate of 87.00 and a low estimate of 56.00.
To get Starwood, Marriott had to outbid China’s Anbang Insurance Group.
There were further delays while the merger got approval from anti-trust authorities in several countries.
Hotel owners “have made bets with their valuable real estate with the brand on those hotels”, Sorenson said.
Marriott says it plans to squeeze $250-million in annual cost savings out of the combined entity within two years of closing the deal. It will also give Marriott additional power over Priceline and Expedia, the two behemoth travel agencies online that sell rooms for hotels in exchange for commission.
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Starwood’s lifestyle brand Aloft will join Marriott’s Moxy and AC Hotels; the Marriott brand will complement Sheraton.
