Vince Chan

We think of it as a luxury brand that has luxury and some approachability to it,” said Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International. “In a sense, that’s perfect for Edmonton.”

The first JW Marriott Hotel opened in 1984 in Washington, D.C. and was named as a tribute to the company founder.

“It’s truly a global brand with tremendous familiarity by the luxury customer,” Sorenson said. “It is often ranked one of the three best luxury brands in the world with Ritz-Carlton, which we also own, and another brand, which I won’t name. It’ll be a great part of this transformation of downtown Edmonton.”

http://edmontonjournal.com/business/...to-jw-marriott


Really? Where does the information come from?Or is he making a joke or seriously?

Despite how much I appreciate the brand and I love Marriott especially their higher end brand, overall , I still couldn't imagine about this . It's too far from the fact and reality. JW Marriott rank top 3 luxury brand in the world? I don't think it can even make to the top 5 , maybe can make to the top 10 luxury chain , with its competitor Conrad ranking ahead of JW(Conrad average having much bigger room in size and better consistency international or domestic) .

So what is another brand of the 3?

Sheraton?

Eujeanie

I don't read that as the 3rd one being also a Marriott at all...my guess is Four Seasons?

CPRich

It reads to me that he believes JW is a top three brand, along with Ritz-Carlton. Which it isn't.

RC
Mandarin Oriental
Peninsula
Four Seasons
St. Regis

And depending on what you call a chain - Jumeirah, Aman, Banyan Tree, Oberoi , Raffles, Park Hyatt, Shangri-La, etc.

I'd say JW is somewhere in that 6-15 region.

C17PSGR

I like JW's more than RC's because of its "approachability," but ... considering the other hotels listed in this posting, I probably wouldn't describe it as one of the top three luxury hotels.

However, if I wanted to spin it ... JW is a luxury hotel. There are more JW's than Mandarin or St. Regis, so if the top luxury hotels are measured by number of hotels, or some other metric such as most likely to be booked or room count, it might be a top three.

t1c

In Edmonton AB their only competition would be Fairmont. Maybe that's the missing hotel he would not name.

pinniped

If somebody asked me on the street to name the top three luxury hotel brands (chains) in the world, I'd say 4S, MO, and Peninsula. Ritz and St. Regis somewhere in my Top 10, but both a bit hampered because they've kind of gone mass-market a bit. (Ritz a little more than StR.)

If JW made my top ten, it's probably I don't know smaller luxury hotel brands that well. I've never stayed at Raffles, Oberei, and Aman, for example.

If we're dipping into the top end of the really big chains, I think I'd have W=A, Park Hyatt, and maybe even Intercontinental above JW.

I think of JW similar to Conrad. High-end upscale. Not quite luxury.

t1c

There are only 86 JW's in the world, only 8 are category 9 and only 3 in the USA (Cali, Florida, NYC).

SkiAdcock

Agree.

Cheers.

sdsearch

He said brand, not chain.

Brand and chain are not necessarily the same thing.

RC is definitely a separate brand from Fairfield Inn. I don't think anyone would disagree about that.

But are in they in the same Marriott family chain or not? Here I'm not sure if everyone would agree on what they think "chain" means exactly (in a world where Marriott says they have 30 brands).

Consider, for example, that this long-running thread in the Hilton family forum:
clearly means the Hilton family of brands (and not just the Hilton brand) when it says "chain".

(The equivalent thread in the Marriott forum doesn't mention "Marriott" or "brand" or "chain" or "family" in the thread title at all.)

CPRich

Fine, replace "chain" with "brand". I doubt anyone was really thrown for a loop and misunderstood the point.

Vince Chan

Category number has nothing to do with how good or bad a Marriott is.

For example, JW Marriott Hanoi is average gaining 5 points in TA among thousands reviews, and it's a category 3 or 4(I forget). This is one of the best hotel of the Marriott chain in the World.

An old and outdated marriott in NYC can be category 8, with ranking probably 200~300 in TA.

Vince Chan

I have always thought IC as a inferior brand comparing to JW and Conrad, because among 180 ICs in the world, almost half of them can barely meet upscale requirement.

If you traveled a lot, you will see consistency. If you only been to Hong Kong, Bangkok or Osaka, you will probably thought IC is a premier brand.

ArmyFlyer05

I think the argument could be made that they are one of the better luxury "chain" brands. Depending on the actual hotel/location any of the Park Hyatt, St. Regis, Ritz Carlton, Conrad, IC, JW could be the best "luxury" hotel.

But overall luxury brands, not even close. I don't think anyone would choose a JW over Aman, Dorchester, Rosewood, Langham, Belmond, Peninsula, Four Seasons, Oberoi, One&Only, Taj, Mandarin Oriental, Fairmont.

t1c

Not necessarily true. These categories change all the time based on the price, location and amenities. Also look at redemption rates for a category 9 compared to a 5. Your also comparing Asia to the USA, Vietnam to NYC.

Oxon Flyer

For those of us who don't necessarily know the difference, could you say what is brand and what is chain for the various names mentioned in this thread ?