New Marriott Design Stresses Aesthetics

No. 1 Hotel Brand Upgrades Its Image

ORLANDO -- At the new JW Marriott hotel here, the bright yellow rooms are light and open, the golf course was designed by Greg Norman and the Italian restaurant on the ground floor grows its vegetables out back.

As about 800 general managers of Marriott hotels around the world gathered here last week, the message they received from their corporate bosses was clear: To retain its position as the world's largest hotel company, Bethesda-based Marriott International Inc. must adopt better design, more exotic amenities, tastier food and more comfortable beds in its 2,600 hotels worldwide.

Marriott has a fusty, plain-vanilla image that has to change, senior executives of the company say. Their hotels, which include the brands Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn, must be more than adequate places to sleep when on a business trip to Des Moines, but fun places to spend a few days, they say. To make it happen, they will have to persuade a network of independent owners and franchisees of Marriott hotels to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade.

Marriott's emphasis on improving the aesthetic experience for guests is part of a shift in how hotels fight for the business of a generation of travelers who demand sophisticated wine list and high-thread-count sheets in addition to a competitive price.

"Location is still very important, and rates are still very important," said J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr., chairman of Marriott International Inc. "But the younger travelers coming care more about having a pleasurable experience than people used to. They expect all this stuff, so we have to provide it."

To some degree, Marriott is playing catch-up with competitors such as Westin, which introduced a higher-quality bed and emphasized design in 1999. Other major competitors such as Hilton and Hyatt have similar strategies.

Marriott's plan translates into a new design for hotel rooms, announced last week, which include rich shades of red and yellow, furniture made of cherry, and bathroom finishes made of glass and chrome.

The centerpiece of the room is an upgraded bed with 300-thread-count sheets (as opposed to the current 180), white duvet covers that are laundered between guests (old-style bedspreads were cleaned only once a month), and an extra pillow on each bed. The beds represent an investment of $190 million across 2,400 hotels, to be completed this year, part of a thread-count race among hoteliers that began with Westin's "Heavenly Bed" campaign six years ago.

The stakes for Marriott are huge. The company is coming off a strong year financially; revenue per available room in its properties worldwide, a key measure of hotels' operating performance, rose 9.6 percent in 2004. But the long-term outlook is less clear.

Marriott manages or franchises the vast majority of its hotels, and owns very few of them. That means that its future rests on hotel owners who consider its brand name to be strong enough to warrant stiff management and franchise fees.