Forever first? Of course, nothing can be taken for granted in the hotel business. But since the takeover of its rival Starwood in 2016, the Marriott group's offering has far outstripped the rest of the hotel groups, with its million and a half rooms and 8,300 hotels around the world. Leadership status which the American group likes to consolidate year after year, with 2022 showing net growth of 3.1 % in the number of rooms with the opening of 394 establishments. Anthony Capuano, CEO of Marriott International, expressed his satisfaction with " the acceleration of our development activities in 2022, as the global recovery continues" .
The luxury segment, where Marriott is also the world leader with its 500 hotels and resorts, compared with around 300 for its rivals Accor and IHG, has seen a number of new hotels appear, including the Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad, the Madrid EDITION and, in a more resort and lifestyle style, the W Costa Navarino in Greece. And the American group is set to consolidating its lead in luxury hotels with a record 42 agreements signed last year.
To explain his group's dynamism, Anthony Capuano pointed to a number of factors, not least the appeal of its brand portfolio, but also a commitment to innovation and, above all, the strength of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty programme. These are all tangible factors for owners when they choose the brand for their establishments. Car Marriott's growth momentum is currently driven by conversions of existing hotels. A general trend in today's world, in fact, given the brand's rapid expansion. voco at IHG worldwide, or the recent launch by Accor of theHandwritten Collectiondedicated to bringing together independent hotels with a unique character through flexible membership conditions.
With its collections - Autograph, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio - Marriott has the right brands to attract hoteliers seeking the commercial support of the world's leading group. Noah Silverman, Managing Director of Development for Marriott in North America, explained that he would continue to see " conversions provide significant growth for our system (...) as owners seek to reposition assets and maximise returns" . Because, in addition to its collections, the Group's other brands are also conducive to changes in signage. So JW Marriott has taken its place within the walls ofa former Four Seasons in Sao Paulo, a ex Jumeirah in Frankfurt and more recently a business hotel from the German Maritim group in Berlin. The conversions have thus helped to stimulate the conclusion of new projects, representing around 20 % of the rooms signed in 2022, a large proportion of which relate to the aforementioned collections.
All in all, with an average of two management or franchise agreements signed every day, Marriott can look forward to a bright future in this post-pandemic recovery phase. The American group has signed up to 726 future hotelsThis represents an increase of 21 % compared with 2021 signatures. These projects add to a pipeline of 3,000 hotels with more than 496,000 rooms, many of them outside the United States. This figure does not take into account the current acquisition of Hoteles City Express, a well-known brand in Mexico with a presence in 75 cities and 152 hotels in all.
Once the transaction is completed, probably in the first half of 2023, Marriott will become the leading hotel operator in the Caribbean and Latin America. However, by entering the mid-range, low-cost segment, the group does not intend to stop there, and intends to develop the Marriott brand further. City Express by Marriott throughout the region and is already looking beyond Latin America.
Over and above the attractiveness of its collections, limited-service chains remain the key growth driver by Marriott. Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill, Four Points, Aloft, AC Hotels, Moxy: all these brands together accounted for almost three quarters of hotel openings last year. And in 2022, almost half of all hotel openings will also be in this segment, with a Moxy in Athens, an AC Hotel in Melbourne and a Courtyard by Marriott in Nagoya, Japan, all representative of international expansion.
At a time when the line between business and leisure is becoming increasingly blurred with the spread of hybrid working, Marriott is banking on another promising activity: long-term stays. In 2022, its extended-stay brands - Residence Inn, Element and TownePlace Suites - achieved a record number of signings, representing just under a third of all those signed by the American group as a whole. Noah Silverman, who is in charge of development across the Atlantic, sees " an exceptional opportunity to propel our long-stay and limited-service brands into underserved secondary and tertiary markets. "At the same time, the group launched a new brand in November, Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy, to roll out the concept of top-of-the-range serviced flats based on the idea of collections that have proved their worth in traditional hotels.
