marriott now world's biggest hotel group

MARRIOTT International
has finalised its
acquisition of Starwood
Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide, making it the
largest hotel group in the
world.
Starwood put itself up
for sale in April 2015,
which led to a bidding
war between Marriott
and Anbang, a Chinese
insurance group. However,
earlier this year Anbang
withdrew its offer, leaving
Marriott to move forward
with the merger.
The two groups linked
their loyalty programmes
last month and members
will have their statuses
matched and be able
to transfer and redeem
points across the
programmes.
The merger brings the
group’s total properties
to over 5 700 in 110
countries and has doubled
Marriott’s distribution in
Asia, the Middle East and
Africa combined.