November
The creation of the world's largest hotel company happened in November with the news that Marriott International was buying Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
The merger will see the company operate 5,500 hotels worldwide under 28 hotel brands and led to speculation of further consolidation in the market. Low and behold, the experts were right with news following the next month that French-based hotel company Accor had acquired Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel.