Marriott (MAR) Debuts its Marriott Marquis Brand in Chicago

A Marriott International, Inc. MAR brand, Marriott Marquis, recently announced the opening of its hotel in Chicago, IL.

In fact, Marriott Marquis Chicago is the brand’s first property in the city and also the largest Marriott hotel to open in North America in 2017.

The 1205-roomed hotel is suitably located in the burgeoning entertainment and convention district of McCormick Square. Also, the property encompasses a huge event space, several meeting rooms, a Club Lounge, a fitness facility as well as food and beverage offerings.

Notably, in addition to domestic markets, Marriott is consistently trying to expand its presence worldwide and capitalize on the demand for hotels in international markets. Going forward, the company also plans to significantly grow its global portfolio of luxury and lifestyle brands. It anticipates net room additions of 6% in 2017.

In fact, after announcing the acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts on Sep 23, 2016, Marriott has become the world’s largest hotel company. Currently, it has more than 6,200 properties across 125 countries and territories. Post-acquisition, shares of the company have surged 53.5% while the S&P 500 index gained 14.7%, depicting the positive effect of the buyout.

Moreover, given strong transient demand along with improvements in business and leisure travel, we believe Marriott is poised to grow in the near as well as long term. Investments in technology for hotel bookings are likely to improve guest experience too, thus boosting occupancy.

Meanwhile, Marriott believes that linking of the three industry-leading guest loyalty programs — Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest — would lead to an even larger loyalty community in the long run.

Yet, lingering political uncertainties in key international markets along with currency headwinds remain concerns for the company as well as the other hotel chains like Hyatt Hotels Corporation H, Hilton Worldwide Holdings HLT and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation WYN.

Nevertheless, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s continual expansion efforts and an unmatched portfolio of lodging brands raise investors’ optimism in the stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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