Originally Posted by
Will Stonehocker
Well, there goes a room style that my half-brothers and parents loved back in the day. I never experienced it-the inside hallway RI hotels tend to be the way of the future. Even though the Asheville location and the one near Louisville airport (it's not the one my parents stayed at back in 1992) are all from the late 1990's, at least they were new enough to keep the RI name.
There are still plenty of older Residence Inns with the old floorplans.
As already noted, Marriott is not "turning Residence Inns over to Sonesta." But as also already noted, the owners of some such properties are switching to the Sonesta ES Suites brand -- especially when the property owner is the same company that owns the Sonesta ES Suites brand.
Originally Posted by
Will Stonehocker
According to my father, the reason why a lot of the outdoor hallway RI hotels are getting taken by Sonesta and a few other brands is because the Penthouse Suite is obsolete. Expensive to maintain, plus if you cook in those kinds of rooms (not that I ever tried, but you can), smoke rises easily. And the fact the inside hallway RIs tend to copy off a 2.5-star hotel...not exactly.
Residence Inn was acquired by Marriott in 1987. Initially, the brand standards continued to call for clusters of residential buildings with outside doors, including 2-story penthouses that were reached by outside stairways.
Around the mid-1990s, Marriott changed the standards for new construction to inside hallways and the elimination of 2-story penthouses. There were probably a number of reasons why Marriott chose to make the change, including accessibility, maintainability, security, liability, and evolving guest expectations.
For more than 20 years, the Residence Inn brand has grown to have primarily the "new" configuration.
I'm not sure it's correct to say, "outdoor hallway RI hotels are getting taken by Sonesta and a few other brands is because the Penthouse Suite is obsolete." It seems Marriott is happy to collect franchise and marketing fees from owners of older Residence Inn properties that maintain their properties properly.
Originally Posted by
Will Stonehocker
Just my overall observations. Sonestas have also taken over the exterior hallway Summerfield Suites (and the ones that Hyatt refused to work with-Staybridge had some involvement with them)-those are the ones where the main building has a second floor with rooms-which definitely does scream retro.
The Sonesta ES Suites brand is now slightly over five years old. Clearly, there are business people who are betting that they can be more successful if they don't pay franchise and marketing fees to Marriott. Perhaps having a well-known brand is less important in the extended stay segment.