North Island, a Luxury Collection Resort, Seychelles [Master Thread]
 

Really interesting news today that management of the North Island Resort will be taken over by aSmallWorld (a Facebook social network for connected people) and will subsequently join Marriott as a member of the Luxury Collection. I expect this is going to attract a lot of attention on Flyertalk over the next few years. I'm definitely going to see whether I can swing by in the early months.

That would certainly be amazing; but I have hard time imagine that you could ever redeem points there. Rates are starting at 8k USD per night plus tax.
https://www.north-island.com/pdf/NI-Rates2019.pdf

There are only 11 villas too, what is the point in them joining Marriott other than perhaps hotel management.

Unless they plan to expand by a few villas it really doesn't make much sense.

Redeeming here would be absolute insanity. When do we expect the property to join the Luxury Collection?

Marketing?

Press release

North Island is owned by the North Island Company Limited and is anticipated to join The Luxury Collection brand portfolio of world-renowned hotels and resorts in December 2019.

North Island Seychelles coming to Marriott
 

north-island.com/rates
€7,784 Presidential Villas – 1 to 10 (5,000ft2)
€12,252 Villa North Island – Villa 11 (8,000ft2)
rate includes everything even all scuba diving
good value peak/holiday vs crazy rates elsewhere
497 acres 11 rooms north island
vs
22 acres 77 rooms st regis maldives (crazy holiday rate)

luxury collection chosen because unbranded franchise, not managed
obviously joins list of marriotts that do not participate in bonvoy etc
entire RC Reserve brand does not participate as just one example
maybe considering sub brand for Luxury Collection like RC Reserve

what does marriott require for franchise, will they make exception for this

small world may also be entirely licensing equivalent to franchise
clearly 'everyone' would want to be associated with north island if an option
north island also only recently joined virtuoso a few months ago
old news articles name a russian owner of north island
one sale of north island was in 2010 for $47.5m USD

high rate may get negotiated dramatically reduced commission to marriott

Marriott press release:

https://news.marriott.com/2019/03/th...-north-island/

Cheers.

There are many conflicting stories about the management by aSmallWorld--so we might want to tread carefully. The group isn't known for success in luxury property management.

There also are rumors that North Island will be adding more villas. That may be part of their interest in joining the Marriott distribution via Luxury Collection. According to many in the Luxury Hotels Forum, this property has rarely been fully occupied--and that's not hard to believe when you consider the astronomical rates!

As for redemptions, all the island has to do is use one villa (or one new smaller villa) as a standard award and not make any others eligible for award redemption: having so few villas/rooms in total means even 1 villa/room will satisfy the award conditions. I also expect Marriott to allow this property to be an exception since it has so few total accommodations. But time will tell!

Our Luxury Forum peers are going nuts over this one. For some, this was among the very best in the world. The fact that the management has changed and that it will join Marriott Luxury Collection is giving many pause--as well it should!

marriott has entire RC Reserve brand where none participate
it was starwood, not marriott, that finally got all to participate

there is zero reason to allow 1 villa to book awards
very easy for marriott to do contest(s) occasionally

what do you mean conflicting stories and rumors? from linked marriott >

not very conflicting. big PR for smallworld. may be connection between them and North owner. (there is a russian name that is in media.) it is likely a franchise type deal for marketing.

similarly luxury collection allows franchises. unique among big chains.

You misunderstand. I refer to conflicting stories about the QUALITY of the management, not conflicting stories about the fact that aSmallWorld is taking over the management!

You're comparing apples to oranges, my friend. Now we're in the Marriott/Starwood waters that I know all too well and much more intimately than our friends in the Luxury Hotels Forum.

The RC Reserve brand DOES NOT nor participate in the Marriott Bonvoy program, nor did it ever participate in the previous Marriott Rewards program. That is quite different than the Luxury Collection soft brand which always participated in the old SPG program and has always participated in the new Marriott Bonvoy program. There never has been a single exception in the Luxury Collection that didn't participate in the old SPG program or the new Marriott Bonvoy program.

If North Island is joining the Luxury Collection, then there is no reason to assume it will not participate in Marriott Bonvoy like every other Luxury Collection property. It's not like a RC Singapore issue where prior contracts precluded participation in the loyalty program. Heck, even the RC Montreal and RC Chicago now fully participate in the Bonvoy program, and the RC Singapore is rumored to be trying to do the same, as well.

If North Island is joining the Luxury Collection, it therefore will participate in Marriott Bonvoy--it otherwise would be quite the stupid exception to create for no contactual reason or obligation otherwise. That requires that at least 1 villa be available for award redemption to satisfy participation in Marriott Bonvoy. The interesting thing will be to see whether Marriott creates a new award category for such an all villa property, but it wouldn't allow North Island to join Luxury Collection unless North Island understands that the soft brand participates in Marriott Bonvoy.

If North Island didn't want to participate, it wouldn't have chosen the Luxury Collection soft brand. It could have joined the Marriott distribution system as a new brand not unlike Reserve or Bulgari. But it didn't.

no new (unbranded) brand, might do sub-brand of Lux Co
$9K per night, marriott will let them do whatever they want
marriott allows RC singapore to not participate, list goes on

RC chicago always participated after signing franchise
RC montreal did not initially, but has for a while, not RC managed

if marriott does not allow them to do whatever they want, they cancel

marriott doesnt pay enough to make award work, marriott wont change
there is literally no reason to have 1 available, almost zero PR value
this is all about marketing and PR, this is not a normal hotel situation

(for example launch azerai hotel used zecha for PR then deflagged)