Originally Posted by
BrightlyBob
Marriott isn’t really a hospitality company any more, it’s a hotel brander.
I've said this for a long, long time. Marriott's customers are the hotel owners and developers. The guests are merely the product that Marriott is selling the customer hence why Marriott's CEO talks about how the new program is actually cheaper for its real customers, the owners and developers.
Everyone is in for a rude awakening when the variable award-redemption pricing begins in January and the most popular destinations -- London, Paris, Venice, Rome, French Polynesia, Hawaii, the Maldives, Bali, the Caribbean, and maybe even New York or San Francisco -- are at peak pricing for the vast majority of the year. Sure, there will still be some great values but it will require going to new destinations. Maybe Malaysia's Langkawi instead of Bali or Thailand. Maybe York or Edinburgh instead of London. Maybe Bucharest instead of Paris. Maybe Samoa instead of Hawaii or French Polynesia.
What I think Marriott fails to recognise is whilst in North America the flagship full service brands, Marriott, Sheraton, Renaissance and Westin hotels have been built to a pretty vanilla 3.5*, outside the US they’re frequently 5*, and hence brand uniformity will either result in cuts internationally or improvements stateside. I guess Marriotts following the cutting route - shock, horror!
To Marriott's credit they have eliminated over 10,000 rooms from the Sheraton brand. These were at properties with owners unwilling or unable to renovate. Marriott knows it has a problem. They have repeatedly recognized the problem with Sheraton. I don't think they were as strict as they could have been. Best Western and IHG kicked hundreds of legacy Holiday Inn and Best Western properties out a few years ago.
I think it is also worth pointing out that the vast majority of Marriott's properties, across all brands, in North America are managed by third-party management companies, not Marriott. Internationally, at least at the full-service brands, Marriott manages a majority of properties.
Marriott's biggest problem in North America -- besides the third-party management companies -- is many of the worst legacy Marriott properties were developed under contracts that gave the property a Marriott affiliation for a minimum of 30 or 35 years.
Moreover, at least in Michigan, many of these properties aren't in desirable locales. They were built in the 1970s, 1980s or early 1990s around big corporate clients that no longer exist. Look at the Westin Southfield, the Marriott Southfield, the Marriott Pontiac/Auburn Hills/Bloomfield Hills, the Marriott Troy, the Sheraton Novi, and the Marriott Livonia. Each of these properties had big corporate offices by them when they opened. Not so much anymore, though Southfield still has a fair amount of offices. Most of them are $75–$120 on weekends. The Marriott Troy just started renovations. The owners of the Marriott Livonia keep putting off renovations. The Marriott Southfield finally finished renovations not long ago.
The real money is in limited-service hotels. That's why most of Marriott's new properties in North America are flagged under a limited-service brand.
Plus, labor costs are getting so high that it is very difficult to have a proper, 5-star hotel in North America without astronomical room rates. I doubt there are many properties that could have valet parking, bellmen, a dedicated concierge, gourmet restaurant, room service, and turndown service -- the services and amenities that separate a 3 1/2-star hotel from a 4-star or higher hotel -- with rates of $75 or $100 three or four days a week, year-round.