Marriott acquires Starwood, creating world's largest hotel brand

PHOTO: Exterior of JW Marriott in Cannes, France courtesy of JW Marriott

Bright and early this Monday morning, I was doing research on the JW Marriott in Cannes where I will be in two weeks when I received a blockbuster email: "MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL TO ACQUIRE STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, CREATING THE WORLD’S LARGEST HOTEL COMPANY."

Typically when I receive an email in ALL CAPS, I think the publicist is over-worked and over-caffeinated (ha!), but in this instance the only response could be "WOW." The combined Marriott International, Inc and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. will control over 5,500 hotels and 1.1 million rooms.

Purchase price? $12.2 billion. Annual revenue? Oh, a measily $2.7 billion!

For now, this won't mean many changes for anyone except the shareholders -- lucky -- and approximately $100 million dollars for the administrative costs to merge the companies: think paperwork, logos, branding, combining points, etc.

Practically this means JW Marriott + Starwood will have the following hotels in their portfolio. Seriously, WOW!

• The Ritz-Carlton

• Bvlgari

• EDITION

• JW Marriott

• Autograph Collection Hotels

• Renaissance® Hotels

• Marriott Hotels

• Delta Hotels and Resorts

• Marriott Executive Apartments

• Marriott Vacation Club

• Gaylord Hotels

• AC Hotels by Marriott Courtyard

• Residence Inn

• SpringHill Suites

• Fairfield Inn & Suites

• TownePlace Suites

• Protea Hotels

• MoxyHotels

• St. Regis

• The Luxury Collection

• W

• Design Hotels

• Westin

• Le Méridien

• Sheraton

• Four Points by Sheraton

• Aloft

• Element

• Tribute Portfolio