76
THE HOST
WITH
THE MOST
WITH HIS ACQUISITION OF STARWOOD THREE YEARS AGO, ARNE SORENSON
CREATED THE WORLD’S LARGEST HOTEL EMPIRE. GLOBALLY, 20% OF
NEW HOTEL ROOMS BEING BUILT ARE NOW MARRIOTT PROPERTIES—AND
SORENSON STILL THINKS HIS COMPANY ISN’T BIG ENOUGH.BY BIZ CARSON PHOTOGRAPH BY AARON KOTOWSKI FOR FORBESTHE LIST — THE JUST 10 0
76
FORBES.COM NOVEMBER 30, 20 19ARNE SORENSON WAS EITHER OUT OF HIS MIND OR MAKING THE BEST MOVE OF HIS CAREER WHEN HE picked up
the phone in October 2015 and dialed Bill Marriott. The octogenarian patriarch of the hotel empire had anointed So-
renson as Marriott’s CEO just three years earlier, the first time someone from outside the family had led the 92-year-
old firm. Now Sorenson was going to propose something crazy: Spend $13.6 billion to buy rival Starwood Hotels, which
ran upscale chains like the W, St. Regis and Le Meridien. This at a time when Marriott’s market cap was just $20 bil-
lion and traditional hotels were fighting a furious rearguard action against internet upstarts like Airbnb and Vrbo.
“It was obvious he was thinking, Oh, my God, are you kidding? A $13 billion deal?” Sorenson recalls. “Everything’s going