New Marriott brand will be boutique
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Marriott says it’s creating a new brand of boutique hotels. It’s working with designer Ian Schrager. He’s known for his intimate hotels and he was the guy behind the famous nightclub, Studio 54. But do Marriott and boutique hotel even belong in the same sentence? More now from Ashley Milne-Tyte.
ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: That all depends on what you think of as boutique. At the press conference announcing the move, Ian Schrager said a boutique hotel isn’t determined by size, but by attitude. Jeff Weinstein, editor of Hotels Magazine, says he’s not so sure.
Jeff Weinstein: I guess if you wanna believe that, anything can be a boutique hotel. But if anything’s a boutique hotel, then in my opinion nothing is a boutique hotel.
He says nomenclature aside, Marriott is following in the steps of its competitors by creating an edgier brand. And that’s essential if it wants to attract generations X and Y . . .
Weinstein: . . . that has to be a different product than y’know what their fathers and their fathers’ fathers were used to from a Hilton or a Marriott.”
Weinstein says buttoned-down Marriott and style guru Schrager look like an odd couple, but they each excel at what they do. So, he says, their venture has great potential for success.
In New York, I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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