New Delhi, September 26, 2016: Marriott International on Friday completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the company said in a statement.
The $12.2-billion merger deal announced in November last year will make the combined entity the world’s largest hotel company.
The new company will operate 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 West Asia.
Marriott will now 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, the statement added.
The merger also makes the combined company the biggest player in India in terms of rooms inventory.
Associated Press adds:
Marriott now eclipses Hilton Worldwide’s 773,000 rooms and the 766,000 that are part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group family, according to STR, a firm that tracks hotel data.
“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,” Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
Starwood’s guest loyalty program Starwood Preferred Guest was also a “central, strategic rationale for the transaction,” Sorenson said.
Starting Friday, members of Starwood and Marriott’s two loyalty programs will be able to link their accounts together. Gold elite members in one program will get gold status in the other. Platinum elite members will get platinum in the other. Marriott silver members will see Starwood’s lowest category, Preferred Plus.
Each Starwood point will be worth three Marriott Rewards points.
To get Starwood, Marriott had to outbid China’s Anbang Insurance Group. The US and European anti-trust regulators were quick to approve the sale but the Chinese government hesitated, delaying the sale by months.
The new company will keep Marriott’s Bethesda, Maryland headquarters but hasn’t announced if it will keep any presence at Starwood’s Connecticut or New York offices.
Then there are the 30 brands. Some have performed better than others but Sorenson said all of them will probably survive the merger.
For now, Starwood and Marriott will keep separate loyalty programs. Starwood has a credit card deal with American Express as well as close partnerships with Delta Air Lines and Uber. Marriott has a much larger program with partnerships with Chase and United Airlines.
“Nothing changes immediately. We have to see how those partnerships evolve,” Sorenson said. –Hindu Business Line
