Marriott to continue Starwood ‘asset-light’ sell-off
Friday, 26 Sep, 2016
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Marriott International plans to continue Starwood’s ‘asset light’ strategy in selling off its hotel real estate.
In the last few years Starwood has been selling off its owned properties, while committing to long term management agreements with new owners.
During a conference call Marriott finance chief Leeny Oberg said that policy will continue.
Starwood still has about 20 wholly owned hotels in its portfolio.
Oberg said a sell off could raise about $2 billion.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said the market is still strong for some of its landmark properties.
"There is always a market for the St. Regis in New York. In great global cities, real estate like that always has a value."
Sorenson also said there are no plans to offload any of the now 30 brands in the combined portfolio.
Marriott inherited 11 Starwood brands following the closing of the deal.
This is mainly due to the contracts in place with individual hotel owners.
"The hotels are owned by third-party real estate investors. Our contracts don’t give us the right to change the brands that are associated with their hotels. They have made deliberate bets with their valuable real estate about which brands they would like to have on their hotels," Sorenson said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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