longtimereader firstimeposter

probably depends on the business and travelers. I know FedEx uses Hilton and General Dynamics uses Marriott. Most people who I work with, and we are probably a top 20 travel spend company, are loyal to a brand and not independent hotels. While the “engines” may not filter out independents, they usually show preferred hotels first, which tend to be one of the big franchises.

longtimereader firstimeposter

probably depends on the business and travelers. I know FedEx uses Hilton and General Dynamics uses Marriott. Most people who I work with, and we are probably a top 20 travel spend company, are loyal to a brand and not independent hotels. While the “engines” may not filter out independents, they usually show preferred hotels first, which tend to be one of the big franchises.

bocastephen

Depends on the company and who they negotiated a contract with. While most larger companies will go with 1-2 brands, their actual pricing is determined by a contract with an individual property - so depending on the size of the company and the number of nights, they might have 2-3 different preferred hotels in a given city, and that list might shift during the year as nights need to be allocated to a contract. Granted, there is a preference for brands, not because Marriott or Hilton are better than anyone else, but rather to focus on consistency - however I've worked for, and worked with different companies and vendors who had contracts with independent properties in certain cities. In fact, when I was still attached to the corporate world, our company, a very large one, had hotels through the booking engine, with prices that varied, but also published a master list of preferred hotels by city, and you could book direct with those properties to get a fixed negotiated rate - in larger cities like New York, there might be 5-6 hotels on the list, with about half being independent 4-5* business class hotels. This is even more prevalent in Europe which has a larger number of independent properties.

krazykanuck

That's the exact situation I used to deal with when I worked at a global accounting/consulting firm a few years ago. Any "major" city, so a NYC, Chicago, SF, London, etc. We had hotels that we had to stay in because as a company we'd bought XX room nights for the year. Any attempt to stay elsewhere would red flag your travel plans, unless our block was already sold out which at the time wasn't uncommon. I usually booked all my hotels late for that reason, let everybody else fill the crappy block rate properties while I took my chainwide discount to a nicer while still in budget property

MePlatPremier

This discussion on the dynamics of business travel booking engines is completely unrelated to the W Paris.

bocastephen

However, the prevalence of quality properties, of which the W Paris Opera was one, fleeing Marriott for independence or another chain, is germane since this is by no means an isolated incident.

khabah

I was thinking about what happened to this property since leaving Marriott, and seem to have found out what. According to this October 2021 article from Le Parisien, the hotel is being used to house women in distress under the temporary name of Hotel L until May 2022, at which point the building will be stripped and converted to offices.

Well... that's a shame. Glad it was put to noble use during its closure, but I was at least hoping it'd renovate and rebrand into, oh, say Thompson Paris. Oh well.

khabah

oxfordjames

Ironic if it happens, almost all the office space in opera district has been converted to hotels / beds not the other way

UASPG

I remember the discussions on choosing between the W Opera and the Westin Vendome. If the Westin is sold, my guess is that, because of the location, it will become a true luxury hotel, which probably will not be part of Marriott.

Hopefully, Marriott will sign in new properties in Paris in the near future to fill the void.