The Marriott hotel empire started out in 1927 as a mere rootbeer stand in Washington, D.C. by John Marriott of Utah (Goldwasser, 1986, p. 55). It then expanded into a full restaurant and eventually developed into a chain of restaurants called Hot Shoppes. Hot Shoppes specialized in tamales and chili con carne. Its next step diversification was in the field of airline catering in 1937. Twenty years after that, however, came its major move into hotels. The first hotel was opened in Arlington, Virgina. In 1964, Marriott's son Bill became president of the company, heading a conglomerate of four hotels, forty-five Shoppes and an airline catering division with sales of $45 million.
Between 1964 and 1971, Marriott added ten more hotels, expanded airline catering into Europe and South America, acquired the Bob's Big Boy restaurant chain as well as the Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor chain, and established the Roy Rogers Roast Beef Restaurant chain. Their investments expanded into other aspects through the purchase of the Greek cruise line Oceanic and a 45% interest in the Sun cruise line (Hoover handbook of American Business, p. 378). In 1972, Marriott opened two Great America theme parks which proved to be unsuccessful (p. 378). In the 1980s, the company sold one of the theme parks and was forced to discontinue the other.
As of 1977, corporate sales exceeded one billion dollars, covering 1,335 restaurant units, 34 full service hotels and 14 franchised inns. According to a plan to manage rather than own some units, Marriott sold eight hotels in 1978 to Equitable Life Insurance for $92 million. In 1983, the firm started its Courtyard Hotel chain as a moderate-priced entry in the hotel field; by 1989, this venture had totalled 140 units. Continuing its expansion and diversification, in 1985 Marriott acquired competitor Howard Johnson for 531 million dollars, disposing of its manufacturing operations a year later. And in 1982, the...