A market for giants

“The consolidation of two major hotel chains through the acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts by Marriott International was only a matter of time,” says Alex Kloszewski, the managing partner of Hotel Professionals. The chain, as a result of this consolidation will open one hotel per every 14 hours over the next three years. Marriott, although it is now the biggest hotel chain in the world, has only 8 pct. of all the rooms in branded chains. “A deal like this results in significant dominance in terms of distribution volumes on a global basis, and puts all the other hotel chains on notice. This is going to make further consolidation a top priority for major companies to be able to compete on scale,” says Alex Kloszewski. Accor made the first move by absorbing Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel (2015) and entered luxury hotels market. It was before dominated by US and Asian chians. Accor, the European leader, also took over the lifestyle brands Mama Sh