5 Most Valuable Hotel Companies In The World

1. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR)

Market Capitalization as of February 8: $54.97 billion

Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company operates, franchises, and licenses hotel, residential, and timeshare properties worldwide. The company operates and manages multiple hotels, including JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Ritz-Carlton Reserve, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Bulgari, Marriott Hotels, and Sheraton brand names. At the end of December 2021, the annual revenue at Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) came in at $13.85 billion, up from $10.5 billion in the prior year. It is one of the most valuable hotel companies to monitor. 

LRT Capital made the following comment about Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) in its October investor letter:

“Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) is the world’s largest hotel company followed closely by Hilton (HLT) and Intercontinental Hotels Group plc (IHG). The company owns a portfolio of brands from the low end (Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Aloft), through the mid-tier (Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, Renaissance Hotels), to the luxury high end (JW Marriot, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis). In total the company had 7,642 properties with over 1.4 million rooms as of the end of Q1 2021.

The majority (85%) of Marriott’s revenue comes from hotels in the United States, with the rest almost evenly split between Asia Pacific and Europe. Like it’s smaller peer, Hilton, the company today is almost exclusively a manager and franchisor of hotels, not a hotel owner. The company owns 66 hotels, manages 2,083 and franchises 5,493. Like all franchise-based businesses Marriott requires very little capital to grow as it utilizes the investment capital of its hotel-owners/partners to expand. Marriott currently faces a difficult operating environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about the future of business travel. However, the company is an excellent operator with a somewhat leveraged capital structure (the company acquired Starwood Properties in late 2016) – if pent-up demand for travel materializes post-Covid, as we expect it will, the company will quickly go from losing money to raking in profits.”

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