Originally Posted by
Horace
I don't care if a hotel is 1 week old or hundreds of years old. Being old is not bad. The part of the Hotel Palacio De Santa Paula, Autograph Collection in Seville, Spain where I stayed began as a 16th century monastery. Enjoyed the hotel, its location, its restaurant, the helpful staff, and the condition of everything.
I'd agree. I'm talking about old and worn out. At the same time, reevaluating where a hotel falls within the Marriott family should occur periodically. While a 1970s-era Sheraton might have been at the top of its game when it opened, most of these today are run-down and in need of more than just paint and furniture. The physical structure also can be a problem as time goes on. 1970s-era full service hotels typically have low ceilings, outdated HVAC, and aren't easily updated to modern expectations. There's a big difference from the Marriott Key Bridge vs. Marriott Georgetown or Tyson's Corner.
If Marriott (or any other hotel company) allows hotels to do things that alienate or disgust guests, it's bad for the brand. But having brands across the price and category spectrum is not bad in and of itself. In fact, a bad Ritz-Carlton can probably do more damage than a bad Fairfield Inn.
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But I'm not sure how this means Project Mid-T is bad for the Marriott brand.
Marriott already doesn't enforce brand standards at its existing bread & butter brands (Courtyard, Marriott, etc), which have extensive design and operations guides in place. Many (most?) threads in this forum are about hotels not following the rules... and that's with standard brands. Take a look at the Miami market. The highest rated hotels (on Marriott's own website!) are Residence Inns and Fairfields. Some of the lowest are the W, a couple of Tributes, Ritz-Carlton, full service Marriotts.
There's also brand association. No matter what Walmart may try to do, you're not going to find Americans who would equate them with luxury. Even if they created a boutique where they served free Dom & sold Rolexes at the jewelry counter. It doesn't take much for a brand's image to be tarnished these days.