Hilton Worldwide Holdings HLT.N , which would be No.2 behind the combined group, has 775,000 rooms.
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This is the second time the Marriott-Starwood alliance has been disrupted by a Chinese entity.
At the request of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the hotels have agreed to extend the time period for it to complete its review of the merger, Marriott said.
Marriott in a statement on Monday that it believes the “planned merger transaction poses no anti-competitive issues in China”.
Shareholders of both companies have overwhelmingly approved the merger.
The proposed takeover is set to create the world’s largest hotel company with 1.1m rooms across more than 5,500 sites.
MOFCOM has only ever blocked two deals of the 1,473 deals it has reviewed since its anti-monopoly law came into force in 2008 but it has asked for remedies in 26 cases, including InBev, according to law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. The companies have had the deal approved by regulatory authorities representing 40 countries, including the US, the EU, Canada and Japan.
China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co had made a rival bid for Starwood, but abandoned its pursuit of the hotel operator in April. The deal is now valued at about $13.4bn.
Marriott International reported revenues of more than $14 billion in fiscal year 2015. Still, complex transactions can spend months in limbo.
Deals filed via the normal procedure undergo a 30-day phase-one review, which can be extended by 90 days for phase two and by a further 60 days for the final third phase.
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China has put the brakes on Marriott International’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.
