Marriott: From a 1927 Root Beer Stand to the World's Largest Hotel Company

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J. Willard Marriott first felt Washington, D.C.'s summer heat while serving a mission for the LDS Church in the 1920s. After earning his degree at the University of Utah, he returned in 1927 and bought the franchise rights to an A&W root beer stand in Columbia Heights, run with his wife Alice and a business partner. Winter killed root beer sales, so they added hot food and renamed it the Hot Shop. Marriott then ripped out a street curb next to one location to open the first drive-in restaurant on the East Coast, and the family had seven locations by 1932. The company went public in 1953 and opened its first hotel, the Marriott Motor Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, in 1957, charging $9 a night plus $1 for each extra passenger in the car. The Key Bridge Motor Hotel followed in 1959 and operated until 2021, and the business became the Marriott Corporation in 1967.

In 1972, after 45 years, J. Willard handed the CEO role to his son Bill Marriott, who bought the Greek cruise line Sun Line, held until 1987, and opened Great America theme parks in Illinois and California in 1976 before exiting amusement parks in 1984. In 1993 the company split into Host Marriott, which owned the buildings, and Marriott International, which managed and franchised them. That asset-light model funded a 49 percent stake in Ritz-Carlton in 1995, full ownership by 1998, and the $13.6 billion purchase of Starwood in 2016 after a bidding war with China's Anbang Insurance, making Marriott the world's largest hotel company. Arne Sorenson became the first non-family CEO in 2012, and after his death in 2021 Anthony Capuano succeeded him.

• A planned third Great America park near Washington was canceled after local opposition over traffic and noise.
• In 2014 the FCC fined Marriott $600,000 for jamming guests' personal Wi-Fi hotspots at a convention center.
• A 2018 data breach affected roughly 383 million guests and was traced to hackers working for Chinese intelligence.
• Marriott missed its 2025 cage-free egg pledge, citing supply disruptions and bird flu, drawing protests from Mercy for Animals.
• In 2026 Marriott is expanding into nature lodging with an outdoor collection and into wellness brands such as Lefay in Italy.