A marriage with Marriott

Bill Marriott is chairman and president of Marriott International, a company whose foundations were laid by his father,

J Willard Marriott, with the Hot Shoppes restaurant chain.

The young Marriott joined the family company in 1956. Soon after, Marriott made its first venture into the lodging industry with the purchase of the Twin Bridges Motor Hotel in Washington DC.

Bill Marriott became president of the Marriott Corporation in 1964, succeeding his father as chief executive officer in 1972. He was elected chairman in 1985, two months after his father's death.

At 64, Marriott continues to play a key and active role in the company, as well as being a director of General Motors Corporation, Outboard Marine Corporation and the US-Russia Business Roundtable.

He is also a member of the President's Advisory Committee of the American Red Cross and the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council.

An active Mormon, Marriott's religious beliefs tie in closely with his company's philosophy.

"I hold good, Christian values and believe in helping and caring for people - something that goes a long way in this business," he says.

Marriott's two eldest sons and son-in-law all work in the family business, while his youngest son has recently completed two years' Mormon missionary work in Manchester.

The formation of the Whitbread Hotel Company, last month, could not have happened at a more auspicious time.

With the recent demise of the Forte empire as a result of the Granada takeover, and with Whitbread's acquisition of Scott's Hotels last summer, Whitbread now stands at number three in the league of hotel companies in the UK behind Granada and Thistle and Mount Charlotte.

Plans to add at least 2,000 more bedrooms over the next 10 years to its present stockpile of 165 hotels and 10,000 bedrooms makes Whitbread a hotel company to watch.

Central to its growth and development is the Marriott name, which Whitbread acquired on its purchase of the 16-strong Scott's Hotels chain for £183m, from Canadian group Scott's Hospitality.

The deal gives Whitbread the opportunity of tapping into valuable reservations systems and sales offices around the world, which, in particular, will enable the company to double its existing number of American guests.

Whitbread is now sole franchisee of Marriott hotels in the UK and by the summer will operate 32 hotels under the name. Of those, 22 will be branded Marriott hotels - mostly four-star - while 10 will carry the three-star Courtyard by Marriott tag.

In addition to the 16 Marriott hotels that were formerly owned by Scott's Hospitality, Whitbread is in the process of rebranding most of its Country Club Resorts and Country Club Hotels to Marriotts.

At present, 14 properties are deemed unsuitable for conversion to Marriott and will remain as Country Club Hotels.

The largest brand within the Whitbread Hotel Company - Travel Inns - remains unaffected by the presence of Marriott.

While Marriott has been a dominant force for more than 20 years in the USA, where it operates nearly 900 hotels, it has yet to make its mark among the UK public.

It was only four years ago that Scott's Hospitality became the Marriott franchisee in the UK, rebranding the 11 hotels that it then operated from Holiday Inns. Prior to that, the only Marriott representation in the UK was the five-star London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square (opened in 1983) and the Cheshunt Marriott in Hertfordshire (opened in 1991), which are both operated directly from the USA.

Whitbread plans to raise dramatically the profile of the Marriott name in the UK with an advertising campaign that managing director of the Whitbread Hotel Company, Alan Parker, describes as "innovative and interesting".

Also confident that Marriott will make its mark on the British hotel scene is a man who carries the name himself.

Bill Marriott is the son of J Willard Marriott, the founder of the company. He says that Marriott Hotels in the USA traditionally have an occupancy rate that is 10% higher than its competitors.

"We have always been more aggressive in our sales approach than other companies," he says. "There has got to be the ability to fill the British hotels more than they are being filled at present. With the Marriott name and the Whitbread marketing approach, we expect to achieve this."

Whitbread's most valuable opportunity to push the Marriott name will be through its development of a 200-bedroom Marriott Hotel on the prestigious County Hall site, former home of the Greater London Council.

"This is a very significant move for us," says Parker. "It supplies us with a unique building and location on the river front, with a view overlooking the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It will become one of the classic hotel views in the world."

The hotel, along with a 318-room Travel Inn on the same site, is expected to be completed in 1998.

Expansion throughout the rest of the UK will concentrate on gateway locations that have both business and leisure guests. A twin approach of establishing a Marriott hotel in the city centre and a Marriott hotel and country club in the surrounding countryside is to be pursued throughout major destinations, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham.

A number of sites are already under negotiation. Growth will occur through several different routes - acquisitions, development of green field sites, management contracts and joint ventures are all possibilities.

As a British company, Whitbread has an advantage over its predecessor, Scott's Hospitality. "Whitbread has the ability to acquire properties here because of the people on the ground in the UK, which is something Scott's, based in Toronto, didn't have," says Marriott.

While the UK will remain the country with the largest concentration of Marriott Hotels outside the USA (until recently 95% of Marriott Hotels were in the USA) the company is also intending to expand rapidly elsewhere.

Asia, in particular, is seen as a big market for the future, with construction of hotels presently underway in Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpa.

Agreements similar to the one made with Whitbread would be considered elsewhere in the world if the right companies could be found, says Marriott.

"The problem is being able to find committed partners. We couldn't have found a better partner than Whitbread. Like us, they are committed to the customer and have an intense desire to create the best product."