Originally Posted by
rthib
Was in an "old" courtyard and was talking to the front desk about the lobby.
She said that they are trying to hold out as long as they can.
She was keeping a tally of all the elite who had mentioned how much they liked the old lobby and hated the new one.
the owners aren't happy with the costs of the renovation - but they love the increase in RevPAR....unfortunately you can't have one without the other
What's interesting here is that MI isn't forcing CY's to change to the new lobby - that is coming from the Courtyard Franchise Advisory Council which consists of franchise represetatives (sure Marriott has a say but the franchise community has final word on what happens on major items such as this, if a brand doesn't continue to improve theirself they will be stuck behind as the compset continues to improve theirself, think back 30 years ago when CY was first introduced - started an entire new segment but these days you have many different brands in this segment - you need to keep it fresh...what's really interesting is a friend was the chairman of the FAC when this was introduced, both MI and the FAC were concerned about the brand's brand image becoming tired, they didn't want to go as far as aloft and I think they did a decent job with it (more Hyatt Place I'd say) IMO the brand that needs to worry now about feeling "old" is Hilton Garden)