Financial Information

PART II

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As of the end of the period covered by this annual report, we evaluated, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)). Management necessarily applied its judgment in assessing the costs and benefits of those controls and procedures, which by their nature, can provide only reasonable assurance about management’s control objectives. You should note that the design of any system of controls is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and we cannot assure you that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote. Based upon this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective because of the material weakness in internal control over financial reporting described below. In light of the material weakness, management performed additional procedures to validate the accuracy and completeness of the financial results impacted by the control deficiencies. Such procedures included the validation of data underlying key financial models, substantive logic inspection, fluctuation analyses, and detailed testing.

Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A material weakness (as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act) is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

In the 2018 fourth quarter, we identified the following deficiencies in the design of internal control over financial reporting for our Loyalty Program.

1. There were not sufficient resources with an understanding of both the requirements under generally accepted accounting principles of ASU 2014-09 and Loyalty Program operations involved in the initial implementation and ongoing monitoring of ASU 2014-09 to allow the individuals responsible for the review of the Loyalty Program accounting model to prevent or detect material misstatements on a timely basis in the normal course of their review.

2. The combination of the Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott Rewards programs in August 2018 resulted in delayed, incomplete, and inaccurate reporting of Loyalty Program data such that the financial results of the Loyalty Program could not be properly recorded on a timely basis.

These control deficiencies resulted in errors in the calculation of cost reimbursement revenue and reimbursed expenses in our previously issued financial statements for the 2018 first, second, and third quarters. Although the errors were not material to those financial statements, we concluded that the combination of control deficiencies represented a material weakness. Ernst & Young LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has independently assessed our internal control over financial reporting and its report is included in Part II, Item 8 of this report.

Remediation of Material Weakness

We have developed a remediation plan that includes steps to increase dedicated personnel, improve reporting processes, and enhance related supporting technology. We are committed to maintaining a strong internal control environment and implementing measures designed to help ensure that control deficiencies contributing to the material weakness are remediated as soon as possible.

Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have set forth management’s report on internal control over financial reporting and the attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm on our internal control over financial reporting in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K, and we incorporate those reports here by reference.

As outlined above, we are in the process of taking steps to remediate the material weakness. We made no other changes in internal control over financial reporting during the fourth quarter of 2018 that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.