Financial Information

PART I

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Development and Financing Risks

While we are predominantly a manager and franchisor of hotel properties, our hotel owners depend on capital to buy, develop, and improve hotels, and our hotel owners may be unable to access capital when necessary. In order to fund new hotel investments, as well as refurbish and improve existing hotels, both we and current and potential hotel owners must periodically spend money. The availability of funds for new investments and improvement of existing hotels by our current and potential hotel owners depends in large measure on capital markets and liquidity factors, over which we can exert little control. The difficulty of obtaining financing on attractive terms may be constrained by the capital markets for hotel and real estate investments. In addition, owners of existing hotels that we franchise or manage may have difficulty meeting required debt service payments or refinancing loans at maturity.

Our growth strategy depends upon third-party owners/operators, and future arrangements with these third parties may be less favorable. Our growth strategy for development of additional lodging facilities entails entering into and maintaining various arrangements with property owners. The terms of our management agreements, franchise agreements, and leases for each of our lodging facilities are influenced by contract terms offered by our competitors, among other things. We cannot assure you that any of our current arrangements will continue or that we will be able to enter into future collaborations, renew agreements, or enter into new agreements in the future on terms that are as favorable to us as those that exist today.

Our ability to grow our management and franchise systems is subject to the range of risks associated with real estate investments. Our ability to sustain continued growth through management or franchise agreements for new hotels and the conversion of existing facilities to managed or franchised Marriott brands is affected, and may potentially be limited, by a variety of factors influencing real estate development generally. These include site availability, financing, planning, zoning and other local approvals, and other limitations that may be imposed by market and submarket factors, such as projected room occupancy, changes in growth in demand compared to projected supply, territorial restrictions in our management and franchise agreements, costs of construction, and anticipated room rate structure.

Our development activities expose us to project cost, completion, and resale risks. We develop new hotel and residential properties, both directly and through partnerships, joint ventures, and other business structures with third parties. As demonstrated by the impairment charges that we recorded in 2015 and 2014 in connection with our development and construction of three EDITION hotels and residences, our ongoing involvement in the development of properties presents a number of risks, including that: (1) continued weakness in the capital markets may limit our ability, or that of third parties with whom we do business, to raise capital for completion of projects that have commenced or for development of future properties; (2) properties that we develop could become less attractive due to decreases in demand for hotel and residential properties, market absorption or oversupply, with the result that we may not be able to sell such properties for a profit or at the prices or selling pace we anticipate, potentially requiring additional changes in our pricing strategy that could result in further charges; (3) construction delays, cost overruns, lender financial defaults, or so called “Acts of God” such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, or fires may increase overall project costs or result in project cancellations; and (4) we may be unable to recover development costs we incur for any projects that we do not pursue to completion.

Our owned properties and other real estate investments subject us to numerous risks. Although we had relatively few owned and leased properties at the end of 2016, we acquired significant numbers of those properties as part of the Starwood Combination, and such properties are subject to the risks that generally relate to investments in real property. Although we intend to sell most of our owned and leased properties over the next two years, equity real estate investments can be difficult to sell quickly, and we may not be able to do so at prices we find acceptable or at all. Moreover, the investment returns available from equity investments in real estate depend in large part on the amount of income earned and capital appreciation generated by the related properties, and the expenses incurred. A variety of other factors also affect income from properties and real estate values, including governmental regulations, insurance, zoning, tax and eminent domain laws, interest rate levels, and the availability of financing. For example, new or existing real estate zoning or tax laws can make it more expensive and/or time-consuming to develop real property or expand, modify, or renovate hotels. When interest rates increase, the cost of acquiring, developing, expanding, or renovating real property increases and real property values may decrease as the number of potential buyers decreases. Similarly, as financing becomes less available, it becomes more difficult both to acquire and to sell real property. Finally, under eminent domain laws, governments can take real property. Sometimes this taking is for less compensation than the owner believes the property is worth. Despite our asset-light strategy, our real estate properties could be impacted by any of these factors, resulting in a material adverse impact on our results of operations or financial condition. If our properties do not generate revenue sufficient to meet operating expenses, including needed capital expenditures, our income will be adversely affected.

Development activities that involve our co-investment with third parties may result in disputes that could increase project costs, impair project operations, or increase project completion risks. Partnerships, joint ventures, and other business structures involving our co-investment with third parties which we have entered into or acquired as part of the Starwood Combination generally include some form of shared control over the operations of the business and create added risks, including the possibility that other investors in such ventures could become bankrupt or otherwise lack the financial resources to meet their obligations, or could have or develop business interests, policies, or objectives that are inconsistent with ours. Actions by another investor may present additional risks of project delay, increased project costs, or operational difficulties following project completion. Such disputes may also be more likely in difficult business environments.

Investing through partnerships or joint ventures decreases our ability to manage risk. In addition to acquiring or developing hotels and resorts or acquiring companies that complement our business directly, Starwood, and to the lesser extent Marriott, has from time to time invested, and we may continue to invest, as a co-venturer. Such arrangements often have shared control over the operation of the assets. Therefore, such investments may involve risks such as the possibility that the co-venturer might become bankrupt or not have the financial resources to meet its obligations. Should a venture partner become bankrupt we could become liable for our partner’s share of venture’s liabilities. Also, our venture partner may have economic or business interests or goals that are inconsistent with our economic or business interests or goals, may be in a position to take action contrary to our instructions, or may make requests contrary to our policies or objectives. Further, we may be unable to take action without the approval of our venture partners and, alternatively, our venture partners could take actions binding on the venture or partnership without our consent. Therefore, actions by a co-venturer might subject the assets owned by the venture or partnership to additional risk. We cannot assure you that our investments through partnerships or joint ventures will be successful despite these risks.

Risks associated with development and sale of residential properties associated with our lodging properties or brands may reduce our profits. In certain hotel and timeshare projects we participate, directly or through noncontrolling interests and/or licensing agreements, in the development and sale of residential properties associated with our brands, including residences and condominiums under our JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, The Ritz-Carlton Reserve, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, EDITION, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, Marriott Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, and Autograph Collection Hotels brand names and trademarks. Such projects pose further risks beyond those generally associated with our lodging business, which may reduce our profits or compromise our brand equity, including the following: (1) weakness in residential real estate and demand generally may reduce our profits and could make it more difficult to convince future hotel development partners of the value added by our brands; (2) increases in interest rates, reductions in mortgage availability, or increases in the costs of residential ownership could prevent potential customers from buying residential products or reduce the prices they are willing to pay; and (3) residential construction may be subject to warranty and liability claims, and the costs of resolving such claims may be significant.

Some hotel openings in our existing development pipeline and approved projects may be delayed or not result in new hotels, which could adversely affect our growth prospects. We report a significant number of hotels in our development pipeline, including hotels under construction and under signed contracts, as well as hotels approved for development but not yet under signed contracts. The eventual opening of such pipeline hotels and, in particular, the hotels approved for development that are not yet under contract, is subject to numerous risks, including in some cases the owner’s or developer’s ability to obtain adequate financing or governmental or regulatory approvals. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that our development pipeline, and in particular hotels not yet under contract, will result in new hotels that enter our system, or that those hotels will open when we anticipate.

If we incur losses on loans or loan guarantees that we have made to third parties, our profits could decline. At times, we make loans for hotel development or renovation expenditures in connection with entering into or amending management or franchise agreements. From time to time we also provide third-party lenders financial guarantees for the timely repayment of all or a portion of debt related to hotels that we manage or franchise, generally subject to an obligation that the owner reimburse us for any fundings. We could suffer losses if hotel owners or franchisees default on loans that we provide or fail to reimburse us for loan guarantees that we have funded.

If owners of hotels that we manage or franchise cannot repay or refinance mortgage loans secured by their properties, our revenues and profits could decrease and our business could be harmed. The owners of many of our managed or franchised properties have pledged their hotels as collateral for mortgage loans that they entered into when those properties were purchased or refinanced. If those owners cannot repay or refinance maturing indebtedness on favorable terms or at all, the lenders could declare a default, accelerate the related debt, and repossess the property. Such sales or repossessions could, in some cases, result in the termination of our management or franchise agreements and eliminate our anticipated income and cash flows, which could negatively affect our results of operations.