Super-sized hotels are here – and they're not just for Americans.
Last year, the Holiday Inn and Sheraton chains opened their biggest hotels ever, both in Macau (or Macao), Asia's version of Las Vegas. And this month, the J.W. Marriott chain on Feb. 27 will officially open its biggest – and tallest – hotel ever, in Dubai.
You can tour the properties in this photo gallery assembled by USA TODAY's Hotel Check-In.
The gigantic hotels give the three chains great visibility in parts of the world where they're looking to expand. They also offer new insight into running hotels with unusual, super-sized demands.
Sheraton: More lights than Eiffel Tower
Starwood's recently opened 3,863-room, two-tower Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central, is so big that lighting all of its guest rooms required the purchase and installation of 90,796 light bulbs, or 4.5 times the total number needed to light the Eiffel Tower, according to hotel statistics.
The hotel also had to buy 35,217 plush towels, 15,652 pillows, 6256 beds and 9,372 bed sheets with hospital corners to make the rooms ready for guests.
Additionally, the massive Sheraton has three outdoor swimming pools, and a mini-city in the basement that houses hotel dry cleaning, employee dining venues and other behind-the-scenes operations.
The check-in area at the Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central, which opened in September 2012 as the largest internationally branded hotel in world.(Photo: Sheraton Hotels)
Before Macau, Sheraton's largest hotel was in the state known for doing things on a grand scale: The Sheraton Dallas Hotel has 1,840 rooms.
Super-sized hotels: 'Living' billboards
Running massive hotels in popular destination in Asia and the Middle East give these hotel operators what amounts to free advertising to guests, some of whom hope to visit the USA someday.
"It's a living billboard to the brand," says Hoyt Harper, the Starwood executive who runs the Sheraton brand. The hotel's also the biggest in Macau, and the biggest property in Starwood's system of around 1,100 hotels.
The hotel shows guests from China, India, Indonesia, Korea and elsewhere Sheraton's latest developments, such as the chain's biggest club floor with its own swimming pool, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a "Shine for Sheraton" spa and the lobby's "Link@Sheraton" wired with complimentary Wi-Fi.
So far, the hotel is considered a success, Harper says, noting that two days after each tower opened, each one experienced a sold-out night.
In the same Macau development, the Holiday Inn chain last April opened its biggest-ever hotel: the Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central.
It has 1,224 guestrooms, including 65 suites, all equipped with coffeemakers, hair dryers and irons, complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access and free local calls.
Between April 2012 and January 2013, hotel employees handled 438,515 check-ins and check-outs, in addition to handling 280,783 pieces of luggage, says Holiday Inn spokeswoman Sarah-Ann Soffer.
Both the Sheraton and Holiday Inn sit within Las Vegas-based Sands Cotai Central, an area of interconnected resorts that also include the Plaza Macao and the Venetian Macao, as well as restaurants, 600 retailers, street performers and theaters.
In Dubai, Marriott three months ago quietly opened the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, which has 1,608 rooms, nine restaurants and five lounges. It will officially open this month. It's the biggest JW Marriott in the chain so far, says spokeswoman Jessica Kumins.
At 1,164 feet, the hotel is the tallest dedicated hotel building in the world and stands 85 feet shorter than the Empire State Building in New York.
While the well-known hotel chains consider the opening of these hotels major victories, their existence is actually more of a coincidence.
"Often times, the (hotel building) owner makes the decision about room count and then shops the idea around and tries to find a brand," hotel industry tracker Jan Freitag, a senior executive at Smith Travel Research (STR). "So, to a certain extent, the brand is an afterthought."
Chains don't make the Top 10 biggest hotels list for the USA
In the USA, the 10 biggest hotels all are located in Las Vegas and not one is operated by a chain, STR's analysis for USA TODAY shows. They are:
- MGM Grand Hotel, 6,198 rooms
- Luxor Hotel, 4,400 rooms
- Mandalay Bay Resort, 4,332 rooms
- The Venetian, An InterContinental Alliance Resort, 4,049 rooms
- Caesars Palace Las Vegas, 4,016 rooms
- Aria Resort & Casino, 4,004 rooms
- Excalibur Hotel & Casino, 3,981 rooms
- The Bellagio, 3,933 rooms
- Circus Circus Hotel, 3,770 rooms
- Flamingo Las Vegas, 3,642 rooms
Source: USA Today
