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Photo of Marriott Founders

Meet our Founders

Portrait of J. Willard Marriott and Alice S. Marriott

J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott

In 1927, J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott opened the nine-seat root beer stand that grew into the Hot Shoppes restaurant chain and evolved into Marriott International. They built the business on core values that remain embedded in the hospitality company’s culture today.

Read J. Willard Marriott’s full bio

Read Alice Sheets Marriott’s full bio

Bill Marriott

Raised in the family business, J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr. developed an early passion for hospitality. In his more than 60 years at the company’s helm, he built Marriott into a global lodging company with more than 8,000 properties spanning 139 countries and territories.

Read J.W. Marriott, Jr.’s full bio

Highlights

1927

1927

Taking care of customers at the first Hot Shoppe at 14th Street and Kenyon in Washington, D.C., 1927.
1936

1936

Car hops, dubbed “curbers” and “curbettes,” provide car-side service at the Connecticut Avenue Hot Shoppe in Washington, D.C., 1936.
1941

1941

Soldiers and their dates dine at a Hot Shoppe, a popular restaurant chain in the Washington, D.C. area, 1941.
1956

1956

J. Willard Marriott tests propeller-side service at the 14th Street Bridge Hot Shoppe in Washington, D.C., 1956.
1952

1952

Hot Shoppes drive-ins allowed customers to enjoy kerbside dining in their cars, ca. 1955.
1957

1957

Bill Marriott, Jr. provides personalised directions to guests at the new Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel, 1957.
1968

1968

Woodrow Marriott celebrates the Junior Hot Shoppe in Philadelphia’s Progress Plaza, the first African American owned shopping centre in the United States, with members of the Plaza’s and the Shoppe’s management teams, 1968.
1968

1968

J.W. and Alice Marriott, along with their son, company President J.W. Marriott, Jr., stroll the grounds of the newly acquired Camelback Inn near Phoenix, Arizona, 1968.
1982

1982

The Cairo Marriott Hotel and Omar Al Khayyam Casino was the first of Marriott’s African hotels, which opened in 1982. The central section had been the Gezirah Palace, originally built in 1869.

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