Marriott-Starwood Deal Ups the Competition Between Hotels and Booking Sites
Skift Take
Hotels like that online travel agencies sell their rooms, but they'd much rather sell the rooms themselves -- especially as consolidation has given giants like Expedia more power over negotiating prices.
Marriott International's $12.2 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels is very much about filling out Marriott's brand portfolio and global growth but it also about something else -- leverage.
On a call with analysts this morning, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson described why "being bigger" can make the combined companies more effective in competition against the consolidating online travel agencies (Expedia, Travelocity, Wotif, Orbitz Worldwide and HomeAway), the sharing economy, Alibaba, and Google, which is accelerating its initiative to become a hotel booking site in it
