Essay about Marriott Corporation and Project Chariot

Bethesda, Maryland is the headquarters of Marriott International Incorporate. This unique organization transpired from a root beer stand in 1927 into a world-renowned hospitality hotel chain in 1957. Information provided will focus on the evolution of the root beer stand into the Marriott International Incorporate vast hospitality empire. Today, the Marriott hospitality industry has 5,756 hotels with 30 brands in 118 countries with 1.1 million rooms. Additionally, the Marriott generated $14 billion in revenue during 2016 and had over 85 million combined loyalty members between the Marriott and Starwood Preferred Guest reward programs. Furthermore, Marriott partnered with Universal Music Group to bring their rewards member’s additional

Marriott Corporation began from root bear stand, and developed to be the leading supplier of food services and leading logging company in the U.S. The leading parts of the business were lodging, contract services, and restaurants. Their intentions regarding the business strategy was to focus on employees and customer satisfaction. In that way, they can remain the leading growth company. The financial strategies used were:

Manage rather than own hotel assets In 1987, Marriott developed more than $1 billion worth of hotel properties, making it one of the 10 largest commercial real estate developers in the United States. With a fully integrated development process, Marriott identified markets, created development plans, designed projects, and evaluated potential profitability. After development, the company sold the hotel assets to limited partners while retaining operating control as the general partner under a long-term management contract. Management fees typically equaled 3% of revenues plus 20% of the profits before

The Marriott Corporation (MC), had seen a long, successful reign in the hospitality industry until the late 1980s. An economic downturn and the 1990 real estate crash resulted in MC owning newly developed hotel properties with no potential buyers in sight and a mound of debt. During the late 1980s, MC had promised in their annual reports to sell off some of their hotel properties and reduce their burden of debt. However, the company made little progress toward fulfilling that promise. During 1992, MC realized that financial results were only slightly up from the previous year and their ability to raise funds in the capital market was severely limited. MC was left with little choice, as they had to

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

By 1980, more than 23,000 rooms were offered through 55 hotels and resorts located primarily in the U.S. Approximately 70% of company-operated rooms were owned by outside investors and managed by Marriott under agreements averaging 70 years in length. These management agreements contributed approximately $40 million to operating profits in 1979—profits that tended to rise with inflation. Contract Food Service (32% of sales)—Marriott operated almost 300 contract food units, providing a wide range of food service capabilities to a variety of clients. It was the world 's leading supplier of catering services to airlines, with 62 flight kitchens serving domestic and international air travelers. The Food Service Management Division also managed restaurants, cafeterias, conference centers and other facilities for over 200 clients, including business, health care, and educational institutions. Restaurants (25% of sales)—Marriott 's Restaurant Group consisted of 476 company-owned units offering a variety of popularly priced food in 46 states. Roy Rogers fast food restaurants and Big Boy coffee shops accounted for 92% of the total units. Theme Parks and Cruise Ships (8% of sales)—The two Great America theme parks, located in Gurnee, Illinois, between Chicago and, Milwaukee, and in Santa Clara, California, were opened in 1976. Both parks combined a wide variety of thrill and

Mergers and acquisitions are common in the hotel industry. One of the most recent is the acquisition of hotels from CTF Holdings Ltd. (ElBoghdady, Washington Post) This acquisition caused second quarter profits to drop, however second quarter revenue jumped to 2.66 billion up 11% from 2.4 billion in the previous quarter. Marriot reported that revenue per available room rose 11.1 percent, a key measure of a hotel company's strength. Rising demand drove up room rates increasing to 8.9% worldwide and 8.5% in North America.

The hotel chain, Astor Lodge and Suites, Inc., operates 250 properties in 10 western and Rocky Mountain states. The company’s customer base primarily comprises business travelers. In addition, the locations of the properties surround airports, large regional shopping centers, and major highways close to suburban industrial sites as well as office complexes. Projections of 2005 fiscal year forecast a fifth consecutive year of a gross loss for the firm. The estimates include an anticipated $422.6 million in company lodging revenues but a net loss of $15.7 million for 2005. As a result, Joseph James, president and CEO of Astor Lodge and Suites, Inc., initiated a challenging goal for executive management to devise a strategy achieving net profits in two years and sustaining positive growth in the future.

Since its foundation in 1927 Marriott Corporation grew into one of the leading lodging and food services in the US. With three major business lines: lodging, contract services and related business, Marriott has the intention to remain a premier growth company. To achieve this goal the corporation’s strategy is to develop aggressively appropriate opportunities within their business lines. Marriott would like to be the preferred employer, the preferred provider and the most profitable company in each of the operating areas. The financial strategy includes four key elements:

• What is the cost of capital for Marriott’s as a whole at the prevailing capital structure vs. at the target capital structure.

In January 1980, the management of the Marriott Corporation found itself in an interesting dilemma: not only did the corporation have considerable excess debt capacity, but projections of future operations and cash flows indicated that this capacity was on the rise. For Marriott, excess debt capacity was viewed as comparable to unused plant capacity because the existing equity base could support additional productive assets. Management was therefore faced with two problems. First, it needed to determine the amount of funds that would be available if Marriott's full debt capacity were utilized. Second, management needed to decide whether to invest excess funds in new or existing businesses, or to return them to the companies shareholders

The following case analysis portraits the use of capital asset pricing model to compute the weighted average cost of capital for Marriott and each of its divisions. The flow of events below is following a string of different evaluations, each of which is assessed separately.

* Maverick Lodging: managed hotels on behalf of 3rd party owners who had franchise agreements with Marriott

Maverick Lodging is a hotel management company that manages the day-to-day operations of third party franchisees of the Marriott Corporation. The company has recently implemented a balanced scorecard in an effort to align company strategy, structure, performance measurements, and incentives. The organization strategy involves growth in revenue and customer base with the use of differentiation. Issues with the current scorecard and its measures have been identified. Alternative solutions have been researched. A recommended course of action is presented that will allow Maverick Lodging to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

Marriott International envisions itself to be the world’s lodging leader. Its mission is to provide the best possible lodging services experience to customers who vary in backgrounds, language, tradition, religion and cultures all around the world. Marriot is committed to environmental preservation through using environment-friendly technology and engages in social responsibility and community engagement.  We value our shareholder’s so we will only take steps that will ensure our growth. Most importantly, through our “spirit to serve”, we emphasize the importance of Marriott’s people and recognize the value they bring to the organization’s growth and success. It aims to increase revenues by 9% every year, to increase