Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 160 hotels with 47,765 rooms planned for development.[2][3]
History
Foundation and early years
The Marriott hotel chain began when the Hot Shoppes, Inc. restaurant company decided to diversify into hotels. Its first hotel opened in 1957 in Virginia, the Marriott Motor Hotel, adjacent to The Pentagon and Washington National Airport.[4] The company's second hotel was the nearby Marriott Key Bridge Motor Hotel, which opened in 1959.[5] This was soon followed by Marriott Motor Hotels in Dallas in 1960, Philadelphia in 1961, Atlanta in 1965, and Saddle Brook, New Jersey in 1966.[6]
Hot Shoppes, Inc. was renamed the Marriott Corporation in 1967,[7] by which point it was operating 8 hotels.[8]
In 1972, the Marriott lodging division acquired the Greek-based Sun Line cruise line,[10] which it owned until 1987.[11]
In 1975, Marriott Hotels & Resorts expanded to Europe, with the opening of the Amsterdam Marriott.[12]
In these first several decades, Marriott International owned and managed many of the hotels within its portfolio. In 1993, the company decided to spin off the real estate ownership operations as a new company, Host Marriott, while retaining hotel management services under the Marriott International company name.
Development since 2000
By 1999, there were over 360 Marriott Hotels & Resorts in 47 countries, and in November 2010, Marriott Hotels & Resorts announced the opening of what is said was their 500th property, the Pune Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre, in Pune, India.[13] In September 2005, Marriott Hotels & Resorts unveiled its first new room designs in ten years. Dubbed "mSpot", the new rooms feature clean lines and updated technology.[14]
In August 2020, Marriott announced it was ending its Make A Green Choice program.[citation needed] In October 2020, the UK data privacy watchdog fined Marriott Hotels £18.4 million for a serious data breach that exposed the millions of the companies customer's data to cyber-criminals.[15]
In July 2022, The Marriott Hotel revealed that the company's data had been breached. Hackers were able to compromise the hotels' data which led to 20GB of data which included internal documents and information in addition to consumer data such as credit card information. The hackers broke into a server at the Marriott Hotel at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The group shared screenshots of customer information and were in contact with the Hotel chain. This data breach marks the third data breach for the company in the last 4 years.[16]
In 2023, a criminal investigation was opened against Marriott in Poland, claiming that it acted fraudulently and unethically against the Lim company, the owner of a Warsaw hotel. During the COVID-19 period, Marriott would not keep up the hotel's maintenance and shifted the costs of maintaining the empty hotel to the Lim Company. At the same time Marriott prevented the Lim Company from renting the hotel to the National Health Fund for doctors' housing or contracting for advertising deals until the Lim Company would pay unwarranted bonuses to Marriott.[17]
Cairo, Egypt: The Marriott Mena House Hotel is part of a historic accommodation located to the north of the Giza pyramid complex, providing direct views of the monuments. Originally a hunting lodge built in 1869 for the Isma'il Pasha of Egypt, it became a hotel called The Mena House in 1886, named after Pharaoh Menes. In 1977, Egyptian and Israeli diplomats sat down at the hotel to negotiate a settlement that would produce the Camp David Accords, which returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. In 2018, Marriott began managing the garden wing of the hotel as a Marriott, while the palace wing is planned to be transformed into a JW Marriott.[42][43]
Islamabad, Pakistan: The Islamabad Marriott Hotel was the site of a terrorist bombing on 20 September 2008, killing 54 people and injuring 266, mostly Pakistanis. The bombing left a deep crater at the hotel, and it was reopened to the public after three months of reconstruction.[53]
Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel is the second Marriott in Taiwan and the largest Marriott hotel in Asia with 700 rooms. [54]
The London Marriott Hotel County Hall repurposes a Grade II-listed county hall originally used as the headquarters of the local government of London.[57]
Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States: In 1968, the Camelback Inn was bought by Bill Marriott, who once stayed there with his parents as a teenager. It became Marriott's Camelback Inn, the company's first ever resort. In 2003, it was renovated and rebranded as a JW Marriott.[66]
St. Louis, Missouri, United States: The Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel was originally a Statler Hotel acquired by Hilton in 1954, but it left the chain in 1966. It reopened as a Renaissance (also owned by Marriott) in 2002, but it closed in 2009 after its owners failed to repay interest payments to bondholders. Following renovations, it reopened for the second time as a Marriott in 2015.[72]
Tbilisi, Georgia: The Tbilisi Marriott Hotel was designed to be the most luxurious hotel in Tbilisi in 1915, initially with the name Hôtel Majestic, by Armenian merchant Mikael Aramyants. After several years being converted into a hospital and an office, it became a hotel again in 1939 under the name Hotel Tbilisi. Marriott assumed management of the property in 2002 after an extensive reconstruction.[75]
Yerevan, Armenia: The Armenia Marriott Hotel Yerevan, located near the Republic Square, opened as the government-owned Armenia Hotel in 1959. Following the fall of communism, it was privatized, with Marriott assuming management in 1999. It is the second-largest hotel in the country.[79]
Nagoya, Japan: The Nagoya Marriott Associa hotel located near Nagoya station is a 52-story hotel directly above Nagoya station. The hotel is connected to Nagoya station by a passageway.
