Marriott to Open 40 Luxury Hotels in 2018

Marriott International plans to open 40 new hotels across its luxury brands next year, bringing its inventory to 422 properties in more than 60 countries by the end of 2018, Global Brand Officer Tina Edmundson told Travel Market Report during International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) this week in Cannes. It will also start taking reservations for the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, which will launch in 2019; it has already started booking full ship charters.

Across its luxury brands, W Hotels will see half of its U.S. properties finish significant renovations; and its return to Australia with a hotel in Brisbane, with locations in Sydney and Melbourne in the pipeline. Among the 10 new Ws that will welcome guests next year are: Tel Aviv, Dubai on the Palm, Panama, Costa Rica and Xian.

The Luxury Collection will see 12 new hotels open next year, including six in Europe. The Langley is a 41-room conversion of a former estate just a 40-minute drive from Central London; it will feature a 25,000-square-foot spa. Other openings include a boutique hotel in Paris, plus in Tasmania, Los Cabos, and Savannah, Ga.

The Tasman, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Hobart opens in 2018.

JW Marriott will be pushing into the 5-star category with 50 percent of U.S. hotels seeing extensive renovations. A new Nashville property will open in 2018; while the brand will go to the Maldives in the fourth quarter with 68 private overwater villas, the smallest number of keys for a JW.

For St. Regis, major openings included Cairo and Aman, plus completing the renovation of its Rome property. For Ritz-Carlton, there will be a desert resort outside Dubai, properties in Morocco and Tunisia, plus the completion of an extensive renovation for its Berlin hotel.

EDITION will see hyper-growth moving from four to 11 hotels, including properties in: Shanghai, Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Bodrum, West Hollywood, and Times Square in New York. Bulgari will plant its flag in Dubai next year, as well.

The Shanghai EDITION is one of seven EDITION branded properties opening next year.

A major highlight next year will be the opening of a Reserve property in Los Cabos. Separately, its Reserve in Dorado Beach is not now expected to reopen until next October; some 750,000 new shrubs and plants have been ordered to replace those damaged by the hurricane. The St. Regis in Puerto Rico is yet to set a date to re-open.

Edmundson says 2018 is just the beginning, with over 200 luxury properties in the pipeline. Marriott’s rise to be the industry’s dominant player in luxury has developed in the past 20 years, first with its acquisition of Ritz-Carlton and then its purchase of Starwood Hotels and Resorts last year.