PHOTO: JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa. (Photo courtesy of Marriott International)
2015 was more than just a banner year for Marriott International.
Ahead of its impending merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the company announced Tuesday at the American Lodging and Investment Industry Conference that last year was an "outstanding" one for new hotel signings and openings, with contracts signed totaling 104,000 rooms.
Over the course of 2015, Marriott opened 300 hotels comprising 52,000 rooms. The company added another 9,600 rooms to its portfolio in 2015 through the acquisition of Delta Hotels & Resorts.
About one-third of the company's openings occurred outside of North America, while another third of the rooms were conversions from other brands or acquired.
At the conclusion of 2015, Marriott boasted more than 4,400 properties with nearly 760,000 rooms.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based company said that its millennial-focused luxury and lifestyle brands "made a mark" in 2015, pointing to several high profile openings including an AC by Marriott in Miami Beach.
"The contracts we signed in 2015 encompass more than $15 billion of investment by our owners, and represent a tremendous vote of confidence in Marriott's brands," said Marriott president and CEO Arne Sorenson in a statement. "Marriott's new signings reflect broadly distributed growth across the company's global hotel portfolio, and demonstrate the extraordinary appeal of Marriott's brands to customers, industry-leading innovation, significant scale, highly effective systems, and the best associates in the business - all of which attract hotel owners and lenders to our portfolio."
Tuesday's announcement comes more than two months after Marriott announced an agreement to acquire Starwood. The $12.2 billion deal is expected to close in mid-2016, at which point Marriott would become the world's largest hotel company.
In Starwood, Marriott not only be acquiring a company with tremendous international presence, but one of the industry's top loyalty programs in Starwood Preferred Guest.
Therefore, if all necessary approvals are obtained, 2015 will undoubtedly go down as a historic year for Marriott.
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