Marriott CEO expects MGM Resorts partnership to get fully underway by mid-March

Good things come to Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards members who wait.

Months after first announcing — and then delaying — a planned deep-reaching partnership, Marriott International and MGM Resorts finally have the starting line in eyesight. Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano noted on a company earnings call Tuesday that he expects all participating MGM Resorts properties will show up on Marriott booking and loyalty platforms by mid-March.

It’s a huge boost for Marriott Bonvoy members looking for more options in Las Vegas and connects MGM Rewards members to corresponding loyalty tiers in the Marriott network. TPG reported last month Marriott Bonvoy members will get perks that correspond to their Bonvoy tier at participating MGM properties but won’t have to become members of MGM Rewards to earn benefits like when Hyatt was partnered with MGM.

New York-New York Hotel & Casino entered the MGM Collection by Marriott Bonvoy at the end of January and is now available to book on Marriott’s website and mobile app. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was already part of the Autograph Collection prior to the Marriott-MGM partnership being announced.

A total of 37,000 MGM Resorts guest rooms and suites will be added to the Marriott network by the time integration is completed next month. This includes all the MGM properties in Las Vegas as well as Beau Rivage in Mississippi, Borgata in Atlantic City, MGM Grand Detroit in Michigan, MGM National Harbor in Maryland and MGM Springfield in Massachusetts.

“While it is very early days, we’re incredibly pleased with the initial bookings [at New York-New York],” Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said during the investor call. “We’re excited about adding these amazing properties to our portfolio and enhancing our distribution in Las Vegas and other cities across the U.S.”

How MGM Resorts will be clustered at Marriott

Some of the incoming MGM Resorts properties will park within existing Marriott collections brands of independent-minded hotels and resorts that still utilize the company’s booking and loyalty platforms.

Bellagio Resort & Casino will join the Luxury Collection, Aria Resort & Casino will join the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in the Autograph Collection and Park MGM will join the Tribute Portfolio.

Most of the MGM Resorts portfolio will park under the newly formed MGM Collection by Marriott Bonvoy platform: Vdara Hotel & Spa, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, NoMad Las Vegas, The Signature at MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Luxor Hotel and Casino and Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will reside here.

MGM Collection properties outside of Las Vegas include Beau Rivage, Borgata, MGM Grand Detroit, MGM National Harbor and MGM Springfield.

More partnerships — and brands — in the works?

It was an enormously profitable year for the world’s largest hotel company: Marriott reported an $848 million profit for the last three months of the year and a $3.08 billion profit for the entirety of 2023.

Leaders at Marriott’s chief competitor Hilton indicated last week — hot on the heels of announcing a planned snatch of Hyatt’s Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership and rumors of multiple brand acquisitions — that their strong financial position, amid turbulent times for smaller brands, lent itself for further partnerships and potential acquisitions.

Wouldn’t Marriott be considering the same?

While Capuano and Leeny Oberg, Marriott’s chief financial officer and executive vice president of development, weren’t providing specifics on potential new deals on the horizon, they did point to examples of how the company approaches its partnerships.

Expect more relationships like what Marriott has in Vietnam with hospitality and leisure chain Vinpearl, which has led to a significantly ramped up Marriott presence in the Southeast Asian country in just two years. Marriott will eventually expand by 15 hotels in the country across offerings like Renaissance, Sheraton, the Autograph Collection and the namesake Marriott brand thanks to the Vinpearl deal.

“Our teams around the world are actively working on a number of multi-unit conversions,” Capuano said. “To the extent a unique opportunity like MGM presents itself, I think we’ll roll up our sleeves and see if we can make sense of it. We’re really excited about what MGM does for Bonvoy, and if those sorts of opportunities present themselves, we are certainly open to pursuing [them].”

The Marriott leadership team continued to indicate future brand acquisitions are likely to look more like a tuck-in deal that fills in a hole in the network rather than something extensive and expensive like the $13 billion Starwood takeover.

“We are really aware of looking at where something could add something unique to our portfolio, whether it is in a certain part of the world as we did with the City Express deal that really was a tremendous way for us to enter the midscale space and a really attractive market like Mexico at an absolutely reasonable price,” Oberg said.

Speaking of midscale, Marriott couldn’t let an earnings call go by without teasing another new brand in the works: Capuano noted the company is working on a new “U.S. transient midscale” brand that would grow both by conversions as well as ground-up construction.

While City Express technically fits this bill, that brand is focused on Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America while the similarly priced and recently launched Four Points Express by Sheraton will center around Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The quickly teased offering would be Marriott’s 34^th brand and signal further hotel giant attention on the affordable stretch of the hotel segment currently dominated by players like Wyndham and Choice Hotels.

Marriott also has its StudioRes extended-stay brand in this space while Hilton now offers the premium economy Spark and LivSmart Studios extended-stay brand. IHG now offers Garner and Avid while Hyatt’s Hyatt Studios will also play in this arena.

Consider this battle of the budget brands only just getting started.

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