Marriott to Sell Its Restaurants, Focus on Hotels : Services: Tough competition prompted the hotel giant’s decision to sell off its fast-food and family-style eatery chains, including Bob’s Big Boy.

Marriott Corp., unable to gain ground in the restaurant industry, on Monday said it would place family-style eateries like Bob’s Big Boy and its fast-food operations on the sales block and focus on hotel expansion.

The Washington-based hotel chain said it is holding discussions with a potential buyer for the entire 600-outlet Roy Rogers fast-food chain. Company officials said Marriott is also seeking bidders for its 430 family restaurant units--including Bob’s Big Boy, Allie’s, Jolly Roger, Wag’s, Bickford’s and Howard Johnson’s--properties it may be willing to sell on a piecemeal basis.

Most of Marriott’s Bob’s Big Boy restaurants--140 of 235--are in California. The company also has 17 Allie’s and seven Jolly Roger units in the state. The other Marriott-owned restaurants are on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

A spokesman said the sales plan is part of a wide-scale restructuring designed to reposition and streamline the company. Marriott is looking for ways to cut costs but has no immediate layoff plans. Many analysts, citing sizzling competition in food service, said Marriott was forced to choose between the two industries.

“They (Marriott) know hotels, and hotels are typically more profitable,” said Janet Lowder, manager of restaurant and food service consulting at the Los Angeles regional offices of Laventhol & Horwath, an accounting firm. “Marriott is strong in the hotel industry but is not a dominant force in the restaurant industry.”

Competing against giants like McDonald’s, Burger King and Denny’s, Marriott decided to check out of the restaurant industry partly because it could not make significant market share gains, said Robert T. Souers, a company spokesman.

“In the (fast food) restaurant segment, the national players have too much of a head start,” Souers said. “In the family restaurant segment, there is more and more competition. We thought the effort and resources needed to compete would be better spent elsewhere.”

Much of the company’s resources and attention will be focused on an ambitious hotel expansion plan, Souers said. Marriott now operates 530 hotels and motels under the names Marriott, Marriott Suites, Residence Inn, Courtyard and Fairfield Inn. Marriott Chairman J.W. Marriott Jr. has recently said the company aims to double the number of hotels in the chain by the mid-1990s.

Marriott, in a statement, predicted that the company’s profits will grow 15% to 20% per year as a result of the restructuring.

The prediction is realistic, said Sarah Sheckler, an analyst at the Duff & Phelps securities research firm in Chicago.

“The restaurant business was not . . . meeting their financial expectations,” Sheckler said. “The restaurant segment was growing slower than their core (hotel) business and holding back overall company growth.”

Marriott will retain a significant stake in the catering business and will continue to manage food services and gift shop operations under contracts at airports, for example. However, Marriott completed the sale of one contract service--its airline catering division--accepting $570 million for the operation.

Last July, Marriott had announced plans to sell the unit, Marriott In-Flite Services, to Bethesda, Md.-based Caterair, a privately held company that includes Frederick V. Malek, a former Marriott president. But Marriott released no details on the sale until Monday.

The airline catering sale is expected to generate a net gain of $200 million.