Founding and early years (1927-) Edit
Marriott was founded by John Willard Marriott in 1927 when he and his wife, Alice Sheets Marriott, opened a root beer stand in Washington, D.C.[7] As a Mormon missionary in the humid summers in Washington D.C, Marriott was convinced that what residents of the city needed was a place to get a cool drink.[8] The Marriotts later expanded their enterprise into a chain of restaurants and hotels