Marriott, Starwood combined entity to open 80 hotels in India in 3 years

Mumbai: Marriott International Inc, which on Friday completed acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, said the combined entity in India would open around 80 hotels in the next three years, taking the total number of hotels it operates to around 160 in the country.

Both the hotel chains currently operate seven brands each with a total of around 79 hotels with around 18,000 rooms in India. The combined entity would now be called Marriott Hotels India Pvt Ltd, while Starwood would cease to exist from here on, said Rajeev Menon, chief operations officer, Asia-Pacific ( excluding Greater China) told reporters here at a press meet.

“ As a company we have been bullish on the Indian market. Both companies combined have a strong pipeline for the next three years. This would further push our growth story in the country,” Menon said.

At present, both the companies operate in 19 cities. It is expected to go to up to 33 cities in the next three years. While Marriott operates brands like Ritz Carlton, JW Marriott and Courtyard by Mariott among others, Starwood Hotels owns brands such as Le Meridien, St Regis and Westin.

Menon said all the brands would continue to exist in India and the company does not plan to rationalise any of them. He said there would be structural changes within the organization and the company plans to complete the process by end of October this year.

In November 2015, Marriot and Starwood announced their plans to merge the two companies.

However, earlier this year, China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co. made a counter offer to buy out Starwoods. Later, Anbang withdrew its bid.

Post the $13 billion merger, the combined entity now owns around 5,700 hotels with more than 1.1 million rooms s across 110 countries, creating the world’s largest hotel company globally.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.