With Marriott having just made the switch from Pepsi to Coca-Cola after 34 years, I can’t help but be reminded of another soda story involving Marriott, which many people may not be familiar with.
The surprising non-hotel history of Marriott
Most people probably don’t know much about how Marriott was founded, other than knowing of Bill Marriott (formally “John Willard,” which is where the JW Marriott brand comes from), the Mormon connection, and that the first hotel opened in the 1950s.
There’s a lot more to Marriott’s history that might surprise people, and the below ~12 minute video sharing the history of how Marriott started is quite interesting.
Okay, to be honest I find the narration interesting, while the generic images used throughout the video take away from it a bit, though I can appreciate the challenges. If you have the time, I’d recommend giving the below video a watch.
From root beer stand to world’s largest hotel group
As you may have learned above, Marriott really started as an A&W Root Beer Stand, and did airline catering before it ever opened a hotel. To briefly summarize how Bill Marriott got into the hotel business:
- Bill Marriott was born in 1900 in Marriott, Utah, and his parents were sheep herders
- Bill Marriott was always entrepreneurial, started working for his dad at the age of eight, and started his own business at the age of 13; there were lots of ups and downs, but we’ll fast forward to how Marriott started
- In 1927, Bill Marriott and his wife opened the first A&W Root Beer franchise in Washington DC; they had noticed the popularity of root beer stands elsewhere, and thought it would do well in DC
- While it worked great at first during hot summer months, they realized that in the winter it wasn’t as popular; they decided to add warm items to the menu in winter months, and branded the business as “Hot Shoppes”
- In 1928, Bill Marriott opened two more Hot Shoppes, and kept growing from there
- In 1936, Hot Shoppes approached airlines about the prospect of catering boxed lunches on planes, which had previously never been done before; airlines were interested, and soon enough the company was catering inflight meals at Hoover Airport in Washington DC
- In 1953, Hot Shoppes went public, and stock sold out within two hours of trading
- In 1957, Bill Marriott shifted into the hotel business, and opened the first motor hotel (motel) in Arlington, Virginia
- In 1959, the second Marriott property opened, which was the Key Bridge Marriott
- From there Marriott continued to grow to what it is today — the world’s biggest hotel group
Bottom line
Most people don’t realize that Marriott started as a root beer stand, then turned into a restaurant serving hot food, and then turned into an airline catering company. Hotels only came into the picture decades later.
What a fascinating and inspiring story. While Marriott is now the world’s largest hotel group, I can’t help but feel like the innovation that got Marriott to where it is today is sorely lacking at this point, and has been for a long time.
Did you know this aspect of Marriott’s history?
