Achieving Our Vision
We are now more global than ever. We’ve grown our system outside the U.S. by 46 percent in the past seven years—and added five new brands. We are in major destination cities and small towns across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Our continental operating structure gives us close-to-market leadership, speeds innovation, and makes us more efficient and insightful about customers and cultures around the world.
In the Asia Pacific region, we expect to open a hotel every week across 10 different brands, doubling in size, reaching 330 hotels with more than 96,000 rooms across 16 countries by 2016. In 2013, Marriott signed agreements to add 78 new hotels and more than 22,000 rooms in the region, an industry-leading pace among upper-upscale and luxury operators. In 2013, we welcomed the first Fairfield by Marriott in Bengaluru, India and have 12 additional Fairfield by Marriott hotels in development in India. China remains our biggest market in the region with 67 open hotels and signed contracts for more than 80 hotels under development, which will take us to more than 150 hotels there in the next three years.
In Africa, our growth is being propelled by our planned Protea acquisition. With Protea, Marriott expects to nearly double our distribution in the Middle East and Africa to more than 23,000 rooms. The acquisition will also provide us with a proven operational platform and leadership team to accelerate Marriott’s growth and solidify our leadership position in the dynamic and growing African hotel market.
In Europe, we opened The London EDITION in 2013. In early 2014, we demonstrated the value of this new brand and our consistent asset-light strategy by selling The London EDITION and entering into definitive agreements to sell two others under development in New York and Miami while maintaining long-term management contracts. We are committed to our management and franchise business model which helps us deliver value to shareholders through predictable, strong earnings growth and high return on invested capital.
In the United States, we ended 2013 with more than 22,000 hotel rooms under construction, representing the largest hotel construction pipeline in the industry.4 Marriott operates or franchises one of every five new hotel rooms that opened in the U.S. in 2013. The recently opened combination Courtyard/Residence Inn® New York Manhattan/Central Park, dubbed the tallest hotel in New York City, was recently honored with the Development of the Year Award at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. That hotel and the Courtyard/Residence Inn in Los Angeles (scheduled to open in June 2014) are standouts in our efforts to develop multi-brand and multi-use properties. More than 70 percent of the hotels in our North American pipeline are located outside the largest 25 U.S. metropolitan markets. In 2013, we added 90 new owners or franchisees to our system.
We’ve proven that growing distribution increases guest satisfaction and loyalty. It also drives owner preference, efficiency and profitability. Marriott’s distinguished brand lineup, the broadest in the industry, drives our distribution. AC Hotels by Marriott will open its first hotel in the U.S. in 2014, with 16 other projects under contract (totaling 3,215 rooms) around the globe.
Our new brand, Moxy Hotels, is on track to open its first hotel in Milan, Italy, in August 2014, and we plan to open additional properties in six other European markets in 2015. The brand, expected to reach 150 hotels in the next 10 years, combines contemporary design and approachable service at an affordable price. It’s an example of how we envision strategic growth, working closely with our partners, our owners and franchisees.
The fastest hotel brand launch in the industry, the Autograph Collection, has added nearly 60 hotels since its 2010 introduction. The Autograph Collection is a portfolio of unique hotels that harnesses the power of Marriott’s global sales, marketing and revenue engines for independent hotel owners. Forty percent of this brand’s U.S. reservations are driven by Marriott Rewards members.
4 Smith Travel Research