Rumors have been circulating that Marriott International is looking at purchasing some, or all, of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. While I’ve been skeptical of these rumors, there may be something brewing here after all.
Marriott is Rumored to be Acquiring Rosewood
The rumor of Rosewood looking to potentially sell some assets first appeared in a Bloomberg article last month. Over the weekend, gas was thrown onto the fire after a FlyerTalk user posted a screenshot of what appears to be an email between Marriott International and Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), the owners of Rosewood regarding a sale.
While I can’t vouch for the validity of this email, the poster has been a member of FlyerTalk for over 20 years but we can all be tricked by AI these days, it would appear to indicate that the two sides are at least exploring the idea of a transaction.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Rosewood, the brand was started by by Caroline Rose Hunt, the daughter of oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, in Dallas in 1979. The company’s first property, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, is still in operation to this day. Rosewood Hotel Group was sold to CTFE in 2011.
What Would a Marriott Acquisition Look Like?
Rosewood properties compete with other ultra-high end brands like Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, and Peninsula Hotels. The company has roughly 40 properties worldwide with a significant number in the pipeline. If the brand is brought under the Marriott umbrella, I can’t imagine the brand will have the same look and feel under Marriott control.
Rosewood Hotels and Resorts currently receive significant investment from CTFE as the company is heavily invested in its properties. Most hotel brands operate under an asset light model wherein the company doesn’t own the real estate, but rather operates the hotel on the owner’s behalf.
If the rumors are true, and Marriott does buy some or all of the brand, I’d imagine that this is the approach they would take. This would certainly be unfortunate for Rosewood guests as I wouldn’t imagine the current service standards would be upheld under Marriott ownership, even if they had every intension of doing so.
Laying the Groundwork for a Merger?
If Marriott were looking to acquire the brand, or some parts of the brand, I would assume that work on the back end would have already begun. Marriott is currently transitioning its booking systems to a cloud based program though the implementation is expected to take a couple of years.
Until that transition is complete, Marriott reservations are managed by MARSHA (Marriott’s Automated Reservation System for Hotel Accommodations). The program was first launched in 1984 and isn’t the easiest tool to use. If Marriott was looking to add Rosewood or any other new brand into the system, it would likely have already started to built out the necessary infrastructure in its legacy systems.
Someone who is better at technology than me may be able to find some clues hidden in the code on Marriott.com. As we’ve seen with the BILT 2.0 card changes that were discovered by a user on Reddit, the devil is in the details, or rather the code.
Summary
Rumors are swirling that Marriott International is finalizing the purchase of some, or all, of the Rosewood Hotels and Resorts portfolio. While these rumors haven’t been confirmed, there is certainly plenty of smoke here to warrant a closer look.