The Mariott Starwood merger just was approved. It is happening. I can't even imagine, what goes into the integration of all that. And, a lot of that falls on your plate. So tell me what it's like. It does. First of all, we're just thrilled about the deal. It will make us the largest Hotel company in the world and our goal is to be the best, we'll have 30 brands, we'll be in 110 different countries, 500, 000 employees, well over a million rooms, and it's really exciting. And what are the benefits of scale? We hear a lot that this deal was about scale, but what exactly does that do for you? Yeah, I think in today's day and age, with the When you think about the digital disrupters out there, as you and I have spoken about before. The online travel agents. Right, the online travel agencies, etc ., having size and scale on matters in a couple of ways. We have now, with 30 brands and so many Be different. Hotel choices across all different price points, right? From the lovely Ritz Carlton brand, where we are today, to the more economy brands like Fairfield Inn, or Moxy. So it's about more depth and breadth, and choice. But it's also about having the resources to invest in more consumer facing technology. So as a much bigger company, we'll be able to save a more back of the house type of technology that's not as consumer facing. And invest in more things like our mobile app or website. Things that really touched the consumer and that's critically important for our business. And the rewards. You linked the rewards programs right away, which was a big news story. I mean, for someone who is not a rewards junkie, why is that such a big deal? Well that was exciting. I have to tell you, the past 11 months while this deal's been pending. Every time I go to a cocktail party, the number one question I get is, what's going to happen to my points? Right, Marriott Rewards are SPG. So it was something that we were laser- focused on is coming out of the gate day one when this deal closed with something that was beneficial to consumers. There's been so much loyalty to both Starwood and Marriott over the years. We want it to have a big win with consumers and the ability to link your accounts on day one, to transfer status if you're gold with Marriott Rewards or SPG You can get reciprocal status in the other program and then most exultingly I think is the ability to transfer points, day one. So you can transfer your SVG points to Marriott rewards points and stay in places like Aruba where there's not a Starwood property and you can transfer your Marriott reward points for a vacation in Bali or Bora Bora as an example where Marriott has not had properties. So The linkage of the loyalty programs and where we're going to take those loyalty programs is really one of the best parts of this deal. So you mentioned there's thirty brands now, are some of those going to compete with each other? I mean how does that work, just in sheer number of brands? Yeah, I mean, we plan, at this point, to keep all thirty brands, they are Then Starwood's had a lot of success with their brands. They're very well distributed. In many cases, they have quite a few properties under one brand umbrella. And they're targeted to a distinct customer segment, that's very loyal to that brand. That being said, we do have work to do to make sure that for example, it's very clear what the value proposition is for the Ritz Carlton versus St Regis. So we have some work to do on the brand front, but at this point we plan to keep al 30 brands. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Marriott And Starwood Merger Promises More Consumer Options