Marriott CEO Says More Hotel Mega-Mergers Are Likely
Photo Credit: The Marriott leadership team celebrates the acquisition of Starwood in New York. Are we likely to see similar deals in the future? Associated Press for Marriott International / Charles Sykes
Skift Take
Marriott's decision to buy Starwood does seem to make consolidation among the rest of the chasing pack seem very likely. The problem is nobody wants to get burned by doing a deal at the very top of the market.
Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson concedes the company’s “hands are full” integrating Starwood, but he doesn’t believe the hotel chain is “done forever” in terms of mergers and acquisitions.
"We're not going to go out and try to create the opportunities at the moment," Sorenson said. "If opportunities pop up, we'll have to assess them."
In an interview with Skift at the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin last week, Sorenson said he also thinks rivals see the merit of further dealmaking within the sector.
“Since we announced the deal in November of '15, there's been a lot of industry chatter about, ‘OK, this is the first big consolidation of this era. Other companies are going to have to follow.’ And I think that is because ... people understand the logic of it and think the logic makes sense. I think
