January 25, 2022

Marriott Approaches 1.5 Million-Guestroom Mark


Ahead of the upcoming Americas Lodging Investment Summit, Marriott International released a look back at how the company fared in 2021, describing the 12 months as “a strong year of rooms growth and signings.”

System Growth

As of the end of 2021, Marriott's worldwide system consisted of nearly 8,000 properties and roughly 1.48 million rooms in 139 countries and territories, and the company’s global development pipeline had roughly 485,000 rooms.

According to the Q3 2021 report by Lodging Econometrics, Marriott had 1,286 hotels with 166,174 rooms under construction by the end of September, and had opened 60 new hotels with 7,882 rooms, accounting for 30 percent of all new hotel rooms that opened in the U.S. over the quarter.

The company signed 599 agreements during 2021, representing approximately 92,000 rooms, of which slightly more than half are located outside of the U.S. and Canada.

Rooms falling out of the pipeline remain at historically low levels, despite challenges brought on by the pandemic. During 2021, Marriott added more than 86,000 rooms on a gross basis across 517 properties, growing the system 3.9 percent, including deletions of 2.1 percent. The deletion rate was 1.2 percent, excluding the exit of 88 Service Properties Trust select-service hotels.

During Marriott’s Q3 earnings call in November, CEO Tony Capuano said the company expected rooms growth to accelerate to around 6 percent for full-year 2021. “With more clarity around our estimated full-year deletions, we now expect 2021 net rooms growth will be approximately 3.5 percent,” he said at the time.

Luxury, All-Inclusive and Extended-Stay

Marriott’s seven luxury brands have a total of 476 hotels in 69 countries and territories. Last year, the company signed 40 luxury hotel deals, representing over 6,000 rooms, and grew its portfolio of luxury hotel rooms by 4.8 percent net. As of the end of 2021, Marriott’s luxury pipeline has nearly 50,000 rooms, and the company expects to open more than 30 luxury hotels this year.

The company's all-inclusive portfolio includes 28 properties with more than 8,000 rooms across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. In 2021, Marriott signed 22 agreements for all-inclusive resorts, a company record, including 20 all-inclusive resorts under its Autograph Collection Hotels brand and the first Marriott branded all-inclusive resort agreement in North Africa. Carlton Ervin, Marriott's global development officer, international, noted that while the initial all-inclusive growth was focused in the Caribbean and Latin America, the company sees “tremendous opportunity” to expand the all-inclusive platform into additional markets, including the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The extended-stay segment has seen demand growth that the company credits to the increase in remote work and the blending of business and leisure travel. In 2021, extended-stay accounted for 37 percent of Marriott’s rooms signings in U.S. and Canada. The Element Hotels, Residence Inn by Marriott and TownePlace Suites by Marriott brands have more than 1,400 hotels, and notable expected openings in 2022 include the Element City Center Doha, Qatar; the Residence Inn by Marriott The Hague City Center in the Netherlands; and the TownePlace Suites Cape Canaveral Cocoa Beach, Fla.

At ALIS, Marriott will host the "Longer Stay Lounge," a space where investors, owners and operators can learn more about the brand programming and designs. "The extended-stay segment has been extremely resilient over the past few years and guest and owner demand continues to grow, driven in some measure by the rise in multi-purpose travel," said Noah Silverman, global development officer, U.S. & Canada. "We are excited for continued momentum around extended stay and to use our presence at ALIS to communicate the strength and possibilities of Marriott's longer stay category and the impressive value it brings to owners."

Conversions

Marriott added more than 18,000 conversion rooms in 2021, accounting for 21 percent of overall openings. In addition, conversions accounted for 27 percent of rooms signings in 2021.

The Tribute Portfolio soft brand has grown its footprint of open and pipeline hotels by nearly four times in the past five years. In addition, Delta Hotels by Marriott—the company's full-service conversion brand—represented 9 percent of signed conversion deals in 2021.

Notable expected conversion additions in 2022 include the JW Marriott Hotel São Paulo in Brazil; The Brix, Autograph Collection in Trinidad and Tobago; The Serangoon House, Singapore, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel; and a Delta Hotels by Marriott City Center Doha in Qatar.

International Growth

In 2021, Marriott signed 256 agreements representing nearly 51,000 rooms outside the U.S. and Canada. Over the year, the company expanded into Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Lucia and Turks & Caicos. In 2022, the company expects to debut in Albania and Honduras.

At the same time, the company opened 107 select-service hotels representing nearly 19,000 rooms in 29 countries. Notable expected openings in 2022 include Element Yangjiang Hailing Island and Moxy Suzhou (China) City Center. In 2021, Fairfield by Marriott continued to make its mark in Japan with the "Michi-no-eki" project, bringing six more hotels to key locations across four prefectures in Japan. The company also launched its new Fairfield prototype in Europe and the Middle East.

Late in 2021, Marriott announced plans to update 375 of its earliest-generation Courtyard hotels throughout the U.S. and Canada. The properties will get new interiors and exteriors by 2024, including the refreshed Courtyard logo. More than 60 properties have already been upgraded.

Branded Residential Demand

Marriott has nearly 190 branded residential projects open or in development worldwide across 14 of the company's brands. Last year, Marriott signed its first standalone residences for the Edition brand in Miami and for the Autograph Collection Hotels brand in London.

The company currently operates 14 standalone residences with 16 in the pipeline. Overall, the branded residential sector has grown rapidly, with nearly 80 percent of Marriott's upcoming projects located outside of the U.S. and Canada. The company expects to debut 14 residential projects in 2022 in destinations from New York City (The Ritz-Carlton Residences, New York, NoMad) and Algarve (W Residences Algarve) to Belgrade (The Residences at The St. Regis Belgrade).

Copyright 2022 Questex LLC. All rights reserved. From https://www.hotelmanagement.net. By Jena Tesse Fox.

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