Marriott International has completed its $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which includes popular hotel chains such as Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis. Marriott already owns the Courtyard and Ritz Carlton brands, among others. The new combined company now owns 30 hotel brands, 5,700 properties and 1.1 million rooms in more than 110 countries. Globally, the new bigger Marriott now owns more than 1 out of every 15 hotel rooms in the world.
The new acquisition enables Marriott to easily surpass its closest competitor, Hilton Worldwide, which has 733,000 rooms. According to the LA Times, this gives the mammoth hotel chain greater control over the corporate hospitality market and greater leverage over online booking sites such as Expedia, Priceline and Travelocity.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marriott-starwood-20160923-snap-story.html