The new chief executive of the world's largest hotel company has vowed to bring more Starwood and Marriott brands to Australia.
In his first interview since the announcement that the $US14 billion ($18.36bn) Marriott-Starwood merger would proceed, Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International who will take the helm of the combined entity, said the company already had a number of leads in Sydney to open more hotels.
"We want to actively look at more growth in Australia," Mr Sorenson told The Australian, adding that Australia was a very interesting market because of its proximity to Asia. 
Once the merger was completed the hotelier would control 5500 hotels with 1.1 million hotel rooms around the world, with a pipeline of another 350,000 rooms under development, Mr Sorenson said.
"Australia has been a real bright spot for new growth. It has not had that much hotel development - there is the Ritz Carlton in Perth and another hotel in Melbourne," he said.
Bill Marriott, Marriott International executive chairman and chairman of the board, said it "took a lot of courage to make this big bet but we want to keep ahead".
Mr Marriott told the World Tourism and Travel Council summit in Dallas that it had been a rollercoaster couple of weeks "but I don't think it's a huge risk".
"When we complete the acquisition we will be in over 100 countries. We will have a bigger platform from a customer standpoint. We will have 30 brands and should be in every major city in the world." Mr Sorenson, meanwhile, expects Marriott's merger with Starwood to conclude by midyear.
"Obviously we want to do everything in advance of that to start implementing decisions now," he said.
Decisions needed to be made about where the merged entity's offices would be located, he said, and which hotel technology systems would be adopted and what the organisation's new structure would look like.
There would be some lay-offs, and there would not be two chief executives running the merged entity, he said.
"There will be some job implications but overwhelmingly those hotel jobs won't be reduced, it's not about job cuts in the hotel sector." Mr Sorenson said he would concentrate on growing and merging the loyalty programs.
Marriott's rewards program has 55 million loyalty members, while Starwood's Preferred Guest loyalty program had about 22 million members with the merged entity's total rewards membership likely to be 60-70 million.
"We will be able to offer much more choices to our members. Besides making sure we don't miss a beat and continue to take care of our guests, the single most important thing is to drive the strength of the loyalty program." Mr Sorenson said the merged entity would continue to reduce the number of owned hotels. Of the 4300 hotels Marriott manages globally it owns just five, while Starwood operates about 1300 hotels and owns about 40.
Starwood, meanwhile, confirmed that its board of directors unanimously supported the merger with Marriott. According to Marriott and Starwood, both companies would reduce costs by $US250m by eliminating overlap.
Until last week Chinese group Anbang was jockeying to buy Starwood but it suddenly dropped out with little explanation, paving the way for the merger with Marriott.
The Anbang-led consortium said it "has determined not to proceed further" with the offer for the US hotel operator "due to various market considerations".
Under the terms of the amended merger agreement, announced on   March 21, Starwood shareholders will receive $US21 in cash and 0.80 shares of Marriott Class A common stock for each share of Starwood common stock.
Excluding Starwood's timeshare business, the transaction values Starwood at about $US13.3bn ($US77.94 a share), consisting of $US9.7bn of Marriott stock, based on the closing price of $US71.18 on   March 31, and $US3.6bn of cash, based on approximately 170 million outstanding Starwood shares.Lisa Allen travelled to Dallas as a guest of the World Travel and Tourism Council and United Airlines.