Marriott International has completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide creating a unified brand, which will be known as Marriott International henceforth. The Starwood name will, therefore, cease to exist.
At a press conference on Sunday, Marriott president Middle East and Africa Alex Kyriakidis said: “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.”
Kyriakidis also said that 160,000 members, out of 85 million globally, had merged benefits of their loyalty programmes within just 24 hours.
The new company will operate or franchise more than 5,700 properties and 1.1 million rooms, representing 30 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.
“In the Middle East we have a cumulative of 238 operational properties, across 17 brands, and a total of 51,887 rooms,” Kyriakidis said.
“A further 155 hotels and 37,677 rooms are in the pipeline [which will be live by] 2025, introducing a further five new brands to region, namely Bulgari, Edition, AC by Marriott, Element and Fairfield Inn. By 2025 we will be in 38 countries, almost 400 hotels, and well on our way to 100,000 rooms,” he added. Marriott now employs 41,000 employees across the region, with an additional 30,000 to be recruited.
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