Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler who's ready to cross a few items off their bucket list.
It’s been a busy century for Marriott.
Since the hotel chain was founded in 1928, it’s grown from a humble hospitality company known as Hot Shoppes, Inc. to become the world’s largest hotel company in terms of sheer room count. With 36 hotel brands under its belt and one timeshare, Marriott International has a mind-blowing room count of over 1.7 million.
Forget how many rooms that is—even Marriott’s list of over 35 hotel brands is pretty staggering. And while you can probably name a few of its most popular brands, from AC Hotels to Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, you might now know about a few others. Moxy Hotels and Westin Hotels & Resorts surprised me, for example.
And while I’ve always associated Marriott with affordable and mid-range hotels, it has some hugely impressive and upscale brands on its roster.
Ready to take a closer look at Marriott luxury hotels? Meet its six brands.
Billed as a ‘unique collection of luxury boutique hotels’, the goal of EDITION is to give travelers a highly curated and lifestyle-chic stay. So far, EDITION has 21 properties in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, with plans to nearly double that number in the coming years.
But there’s more than style and high design at play; expect top-tier service at an Edition hotel, as staff are trained in the art of five-star treatment.
I also have great news for any Marriott Bonvoy members—you can use your Bonvoy perks for an EDITION stay. In fact, you can use them for all six luxury hotel brands, making Marriott a stand-out compared to other multinational hotel chains.
Welcome to the Old Guard in Marriott’s luxury brand portfolio, which was established back in 1984. With JW Marriott, you can stay at some of the company’s flashiest and most iconic hotels, from the JW Marriott Macau in China to its well-known Grosvenor House in London.
If you’ve got Marriott Bonvoy points burning a hole in your back pocket, you’ll get plenty of bang for your (free) buck at a JW Marriott. You can use those points to book a stay at one of the brand’s 125 properties, which are found in 38 countries worldwide.
St. Regis officially began with the 1904 completion of John Jacob Astor’s St. Regis New York Hotel—but the brand went on a long journey before joining the Marriott portfolio in 2016. Despite St. Regis’s many owners, the brand still retains its high-society atmosphere and luxury trappings.
But know that some of its 58 properties around the world are modern projects with sleek, stylish design, like the St. Regis Red Sea. As with all other Marriott luxury hotel brands, you can use your Bonvoy points to save on hotel stays.
Similar to EDITION, you can expect more contemporary and chic boutique stays with The Luxury Collection. The goal is to give travelers a stylish landing pad near a city’s most popular sites, letting them truly feel immersed and engaged with their destination. Once again, expect a gorgeous design and boosted customer service.
With 37 properties in Asia and 47 in Europe, Marriott’s Luxury Collection should be your focus if you’ve got Bonvoy points you want to use on a trip to either continent. Some of its newest openings include ITC Ratnadipa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the Hotel Du Couvent in Nice, France.
Similar to St. Regis, The Ritz-Carlton has an established reputation—and association with life’s more opulent experiences. Today, you can find 108 Ritz-Carlton hotels around the world, with properties in 30 countries, and another 46 properties set to open soon.
If you want legacy, look no further. A handful of Ritz-Carlton properties around the world are multi-year award winners in the hospitality industry. I’d check out the ‘all butler hotel’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the flashy Nile Ritz-Carlton.
As one of the youngest luxury brands by Marriott, W Hotels focuses on modern, upscale stays—along with some residential projects. According to Marriott, around 30% of all W Hotels include residential apartments. You can usually pick these properties out thanks to their commanding and hyper-modern architecture.
It’s also the smallest luxury brand in Marriott’s portfolio, with only around 60 properties around the world. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t funnel my Bonvoy points at a W Hotel—even Marriott’s less-luxury focused brands like Autograph or Sonder appeal more to me. But that’s just my personal tastes on style, ambiance, and boutique elements.
Tay Belgeri is a writer and traveler from the Heartland who now lives in the Mediterranean. She has almost two decades of international travel, learning, and immigration experience under her belt. She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Global Studies—yes, it’s a thing. With Travel Awaits, Tay is demystifying the act of travel for fellow Americans by covering her favorite adventures, latest bucket-list experiences, and lessons she learned the hard way. She focuses on the little details that make trips easier to plan and more magical to experience. During her career, Tay has been published on AP News, Ranker, MSN, and other major publications. But don’t think of her as a travel writer—she’s a traveler and a writer. Travel is her nature; writing is her trade. For all travel content inquiries, please contact at: taylor.belgeri@travelawaits.com
Suggested image dimensions: {{data.suggestedWidth}} by {{data.suggestedHeight}} pixels.
Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) . Leave empty if the image is purely decorative.
Loading comments…