The family whose Depression-era root beer stand grew into the largest hotel company in the world.
J. Willard Marriott and his wife Alice opened a nine-stool A&W root beer stand in Washington in 1927, which grew into the Hot Shoppes restaurant chain and then into hotels.
Their son J. W. “Bill” Marriott Jr. built Marriott International into the largest hotel company in the world, and the family has remained closely involved for nearly a century.
The Marriotts turned a tiny food stand into a global hospitality empire spanning thousands of hotels, and their management culture became a business-school case study.
The family name is on hotels in nearly every country.
The Marriott family is based in Washington, D.C.. Founders of Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company
1927.
J. Willard Marriott — founder (1927)
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