Marriott To Take Full Control Of Design Hotels

This is a good thing. I had a reservation with a Design Hotel in Athens this past summer, that obviously needed to be canceled. While Marriott was being incredibly generous and flexible regarding refunds, there was fine print that applied specifically to Design Hotels (and a few other "sub-brands") that initially denied me a refund. (It took a good deal of fighting, but I did get my money back.) Hopefully now that fine print will go away.

Once again you fail to understand Marriott's business. You wrote: "... typical Sheraton or St. Regis that’s managed by Marriott."

The typical Sheraton or St. Regis is NOT managed by Marriott. The vast majority of hotels across all Marriott brands are NOT managed by Marriott in North America. Internally, Marriott only really manages Ritz-Carlton and a small minority of other upscale brands in its portfolio.

Internationally, not internally.

@FNT Delta Diamond, Lucky’s got his incorrect story and he’s sticking with it!

I think the questions is whether the Design Hotels will be moved onto Marriott's reservation system. I understand a number of these hotels ended up leaving the Marriott partnership as they needed to effectively manage both their Design and Marriott reservation systems. Costs and complication increased, and they didn't see value.

With 100% stake, Marriott should just move them onto their own platform, even if some aren't available through the Marriott partnership.

I can just see the Bonvoy email - Great News Bonvoy member, we now are the 100 percent owner of Design Hotels and as a result Bonvoy members get absolutely nothing no matter how loyal the member. It's not like you actually expected anything anyway - after all, we're BONVOY. If we wanted a quality loyalty program we'd have used the Starwood model.

My company moved our corporate travellers to the Design in Mexico City Polanco. What a shit show! After an uproar we were back at the Intercontinental.
This was pre-covid so I have no idea what it is like now

I would imagine perks would increase a little for top tier elites. Let's see.

There is already precedent. Bulgari comes to mind.

What benefits do these customers bring, they’re loyal to Marriott not the individual properties. Why would they give away freebies to Marriott elites? Most have a good reputation and following among repeat guests or word of mouth.

Bulgari managers have told me in Bali and Milan, they don’t want guests earning or redeeming Marriott points. Many of these hotels see themselves as in a class of their own above Marriott and competing with mandarin, peninsula, four seasons, belmond, relais & chateaux...

A word of caution. Design Hotels appear to cater for a very special group of guests. I have had a few experiences with them which, from my point of view, were not very positive.

They often offer features that some people might find interesting (e.g. works of art in the rooms or very original arrangements in the room layout) at the price of not offering items that most of us would consider standard features of any hotel room.

I suggest that people wanting to make a reservation in a "Design hotel" try to find out in advance what the room they will be booking offers. I wish I had done it more often. I wish I had asked, for instance, about the size of the bed, the availability of a safe, the availability of electric plugs near the working tables, or whether there was any division between the sleeping room and the bathroom.

The ones I’m familiar with were mostly run down Best Western like motels that instantly transformed into chic hotels with tiny rooms and limited service. Why Marriott would even be interested is a mystery.... Maybe Motel 6 is next on their radar.

I might add that one of the Design hotels I have come across is the one in the main picture of this post (40 km outside Reykjavik, in the middle of nowhere, which might be one of its attractions). Its rooms were tiny and the dining area very spartan. In fact, the hotel is the conversion of a building previously used by the staff of the nearby power station.

Another one was in Reykjavik itself. We had booked six nights, but we only stayed one. The room was tiny. There was no cupboard, but just three shelves and a bar with the space for three or four hangers. But its main feature was the total absence of any division between the sleeping area and the bathroom. There was only a glass cabin around the toilet !