Marriott International, Inc announced a strong year of room growth and signings in 2021. It also provides insight into major trends currently impacting global hospitality development, which helped drive its growth in 2021 and are expected to propel this advance over the next several years.
At 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. At year-end, the company had the largest global development pipeline, with roughly 485,000 rooms.
It signed 599 agreements during 2021 representing approximately 92,000 rooms. 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, growing the system 3.9%, including deletions of 2.1%. The deletion rate was 1.2% excluding the exit of 88 service properties trust select service hotels.
“Marriott has the benefit of sitting at the intersection of information and insights from a global community of developers, properties, owners and franchisees, as well as the more than 160 million members of our Marriott Bonvoy travel program,” said Stephanie Linnartz, President, Marriott International. “Our analysis of the prevalent trends in global development is particularly instructive as we continue to recover from this global pandemic. We have been focused on working closely with our valued community of owners and franchisees throughout these unprecedented times. We are pleased with our strong 2021 development results and look forward to continuing to drive value for our owners and franchisees throughout the recovery and beyond with our quality brands, our comprehensive business support systems and industry leading loyalty platform.”
LUXURY MAINTAINS ITS MOMENTUM
Travellers crave leisure luxury travel experiences seeking iconic destinations and undiscovered locations. Marriott is set to meet this demand with its portfolio of seven luxury brands across 476 hotels spanning 69 countries and territories.
In 2021, it signed 40 luxury hotel deals, representing over 6,000 rooms, and grew its portfolio of luxury hotel rooms by 4.8% net, with notable additions in prime global locations. It anticipates debuting more than 30 luxury hotels in 2022 in destinations from Mexico (The St. Regis Kanai Resort) and Portugal (W Algarve) to Australia (The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne) and South Korea (JW Marriott Jeju Resort & Spa).
THE LEISURE BOOM CONTINUES BOOMING
Leisure demand has led the travel recovery, a trend that is expected to continue into 2022, as travellers continue to embrace multi-purpose trips, mixing remote work and vacation time. Leisure transient global room nights were the first to recover to 2019 pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter of 2021.
For some time prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, leisure travel had been growing at a faster pace than business travel, and according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), all signs point to a continuation of the trend. Marriott’s resort network includes over 600 properties in beach, mountain and desert locations around the world that have seen incredibly high demand and have demonstrated impressive average daily rates.
ALL-INCLUSIVE IS ALL-GROWTH
Consumer interest in the very high growth all-inclusive resort segment continues to increase. Marriott intends to capitalize on its strong recent momentum in this area, leveraging its brands to drive additional growth in this segment. Currently, Marriott International’s portfolio spans 28 properties and last year, it signed 22 agreements for all-inclusive resorts, marking a company record.
“Marriott’s all-inclusive platform is energizing the segment and providing Marriott Bonvoy members, owners and franchisees access to our strong brands,” said Carlton Ervin, Global Development Officer, International, Marriott International. “While our initial all-inclusive growth has been focused in the Caribbean and Latin America, we see tremendous opportunity to expand our all-inclusive platform into additional markets, including the Mediterranean and the Middle East.”
CONVERSIONS TRANSFORM ACROSS THE PORTFOLIO
Conversions are an important driver of room growth in any year, but they have been particularly meaningful during more disruptive times. Marriott added more than 18,000 conversion rooms in 2021, accounting for 21 % of overall openings. In addition, conversions accounted for 27 % of rooms signings in 2021. Interest in conversions into Marriott brands remains high, led by the company’s portfolio of collection brands, including Autograph Collection Hotels, The Luxury Collection, and in particular the Tribute Portfolio, which 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 flexible full-service conversion brand represented 9 % 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.
GLOBAL GROWTH
Development activity for brands within the select service space remains another key driver of growth, especially internationally. In 2021, the company opened 107 select service hotels representing nearly 19,000 rooms in 29 countries across its international regions.
Marriott’s residential business soared in 2021 as evolving lifestyle changes have sparked growing interest in on-demand amenities and services from brands people admire and trust. It has nearly 190 projects open or in development worldwide across 14 of the company’s brands.
In 2021, the hotel company 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.
