Flyaway

Marriott finally comes to Brussels, Belgium. Hopefully Geneva and Madrid will follow one day.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 30, 2001 - Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) has been named to manage a new 218-room hotel in Brussels that is expected to open in mid-2002. It will be the company’s first hotel in Belgium

Owned by Renthotel Brussels S.A., a City Hotels Group Company, the property is currently under construction in central Brussels on Place de la Bourse, opposite the Brussels Stock Exchange, and within a short walking distance to the historic center of the city. When opened, it will be called the Brussels Marriott Hotel.

“We are delighted to have a presence in Brussels,” said Ed Fuller, president and managing director of international lodging for Marriott International. “As the home of the European Union and NATO, Brussels in one of Europe’s most important and strategic cities, and we are confident that this hotel will be a successful addition to the city’s tourism infrastructure.”

“This is a major achievement for City Hotels in its program to build a quality hotel portfolio in Europe. We are very enthusiastic about our collaboration with Marriott International on the project. We are sure that under Marriott’s management, the hotel will become one of Brussels’ favorite hotels,” said Victor Hasson, chairman of City Hotels, a Belgian company listed on Brussels’ stock exchange.

For recreation and dining, the Brussels Marriott Hotel will have a casual restaurant and a lobby lounge. Other amenities will include a fitness center, business center, room service, in-room mini-bar, underground parking for 60 automobiles and a gift shop.

For conferences and social events, the Brussels Marriott Hotel will have 7,390 square feet of space, including a 4,700-square-foot ballroom that is divisible into two sections and several individual meeting rooms totaling 2,690 square feet of space.

Marriott Hotels, Resorts & Suites is Marriott International’s flagship brand of upscale, full-service hotels and resorts. It is positioned to provide services that enable life away from home to be extraordinary by providing consistent, dependable, genuinely caring experiences. At the end of December 2000, there were 393 Marriott-branded hotels globally.


[This message has been edited by Flyaway (edited 03-30-2001).]

IM4Travel

Finally...I was forced to stay in a Sofitel in Brussels..I like my Marriotts!!

empedocles

Anyone been to the Brussels Reniassance recently? Opinions?

Also, looks like they are opening a Marriott there. Anybody know the ETA?

Thanks.

empedocles

I'll just bump this to the top, and take the lack of a response (which is usually pretty quick around here) as a resounding NO.

cruising

The Renaissance is the former Swissotel and has a very bad location, far away from everything. The Brussels Marriott will open this fall, centrally located next to the stock exchange.

empedocles

Thanks cruising.

I emailed customer service about the Marriott and was told it is currently open. Naturally, I don't believe them, since I can't seem to book it online...

I'm assuming the Marriott will be in lower town, given the description. I'll be in BRU in December, so (hopefully) it'll be open by then...

Flyaway

Apparently there is a Marriott Executive Residences in Brussels. You may want to check it out. It looks pretty nice from the web site.

blairvanhorn

Yes, this property is known as the European Quarter Marriott Executive Apartments and is right next door to the Renaissance. I stayed here for the weekend about a month ago. We negotiated a rate of 99 euros per night including full breakfast and use of the extensive gym facilities of the Renaissance.

The apartments, in a separate building, are accessed through a very small lobby with a small lounge - no staff, excellent security. There is a living room with fold out sofa bed, a small kitchen, a WC in the entry, and a bedroom with full bath. Our floor had small balconies off the living rooms. The apartments are well appointed: large desk, two TVs, stereo system, etc. I found it to be a very good value for the money, though a bit impersonal (very business oriented).

The staff at the Renaissance were quite helpful, the breakfasts were very good, the common areas are nice. The neighborhood is very quiet on the weekends and it is a bit further from the center than some other properties. We took taxis or the bus or walked everywhere we wanted to go.

http://www.execapartments.com/BRUER/

belle3388

I stayed at the Renaissance for a weekend three months ago: nice hotel, spacious standard room, friendly staff (especially the Concierge), and great American buffet breakfast. Since it was weekend, hotel's surrounding was very quiet and deserted, none of the shops/offices was open. Twenty to thirty minutes long walk to the city centre where all the attractions are. Not too convenient as a tourist. Taxi: EUR30.00 from hotel to the airport on rainy Monday morning.

Patron

So far, I did not participate on the this threat, because in my opinion Renaissance Brussels Hotel which is located in the 'Quartier Leopold' within a short walk to the European Parliament and other European institutions is a great place to stay for official travel, but not convenient for tourists. If this does not matter, here are some suggestions on public transportation:

To and from the airport by train: BRU is less than twenty minutes from the city centre. From 06:00 till nearly midnight, the Airport City Express links the airport with Brussels South, Central and North four times an hour. Board any Airport City Express train at Brussel Nat Luchthaven (station is located in the basement (level -1) of the terminal building itself), change at Brussel North station and board a train for Brussel-Luxemburg station (from there five minutes walk to the hotel). A one-way ticket costs 2,40 € in second class.

The next underground station is Trone (seven minutes walk on Rue du Trone).

ntamayo

Also, if you feel comfortable taking the metro from the Brussels Nord (North) station, you could take Line 3 (direction Churchill) to Rogier station, then transfer to Line 2 (direction Clemenceau) and get off at Trone.

From Trone, as stated before, you could walk about 10min to the hotel. Or, you could hop on either the 95 or 96 bus to the Luxembourg stop, in which case the hotel is just around the next corner on the Rue du Parnasse.

Overall mass transit is very easy; I would suggest either buying a day pass or a 10-journey pass.

To get to the airport, you could take a taxi to the Brussels Nord station and take the Express train (a.m. trains leave roughly every 15 minutes). If you're pressed for time, there's always the taxi which will run you about 30 eurors for a 25min ride on the freeways.

ntamayo

Just stayed there this past Memorial Day weekend. We got a nice UG to the Jr. suite and access to the club lounge. The staff was very friendly to us. If you have club lounge access, you can take advantage of the of the check-out on that floor by the attendant, bypassing the rush at the reception desk.

For dining, I would suggest heading out to the Bourse (stock exchange) area where you can find a variety of cheap ethnic restaurants (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Spanish tapas, sushi, Irish pub) in one closely-knit neighborhood. The #96 bus takes you from the Luxembourg stop near the hotel to the Bourse station.

David11

Heading there soon - does anybody have any experiences or comments to share.
Many Thanks

bdschobel

I'll be there in a couple of weeks. I'll try to remember to post my experience here.

Bruce

ntamayo

Was there earlier this year, around Memorial Day weekend; simply enjoyed it, esp. as an elite:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum63/HTML/001689.html

......WOOPS, my comment was for the Renaissance Brussels, not Marriott, sorry!

<edited to add Ren comment>

[This message has been edited by ntamayo (edited 11-13-2002).]