In October 2022, Marriott revealed its latest expansion, whereby the world’s largest hotel group is adding its 31st hotel brand. I wanted to provide an update, as this deal has officially closed, and we know when these properties will join Marriott’s portfolio.
In this post:
City Express brand portfolio joins Marriott
Marriott has acquired the City Express brand portfolio from Mexico’s Hoteles City Express for $100 million. This portfolio currently consists of 152 hotels, including 17,356 rooms across 75 cities in Mexico. On top of that, there are a limited number of properties in Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica.
With this deal having closed, Marriott is now the largest hotel company in the Caribbean and Latin America, having grown its presence in the region by 45%, to 486 properties across 37 countries.
Obviously there’s a bit of work that needs to be done to get these properties fully integrated into Marriott’s systems, and it’s expected that they’ll all be bookable through Marriott channels by August 2023. These hotels will all be part of Marriott’s franchise system, and will be branded as “City Express by Marriott.” The company’s brands include City Express, City Express Plus, City Express Suites, City Express Junior, and City Centro.
Annual franchise fees are expected to be approximately $10 million based on the existing portfolio. Marriott hopes to use its global distribution power and Bonvoy program to grow the brand over the coming years.
I’m curious to see how exactly these properties participate in Marriott Bonvoy, given their (relatively) low pricing. Will we see Marriott award half elite nights for stays here, as is newly the case at Protea properties?
Here’s how Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano describes this acquisition:
“This transaction with Hoteles City Express is a strategic win for Marriott and our customers, associates and owners and franchisees. We’re excited to enter a new lodging category – the popular affordable midscale segment where we see significant potential. With City Express by Marriott, we will be providing our customers with more choice through a new, approachable, moderate-priced offering, increasing opportunity for owners and franchisees as well as associates.”
Hotel portfolio growth is good, but…
Marriott is already the world’s largest hotel group, and I’d say Marriott growing further is good news. City Express has hotels in all kinds of smaller markets where Marriott doesn’t currently have a presence (and neither do most other global brands, for that matter), so it’s nice that Bonvoy members traveling to these destinations will have new opportunities to earn and redeem points.
So this is absolutely good news, make no mistake about it. That being said, I really hope these properties start to get a redesign as they join Marriott. The City Express properties I’ve looked at online mostly look bland and borderline ugly.
My issue isn’t that these aren’t luxury properties — after all, there are lots of cool and quirky budget hotel brands out there. I’m trying to give the brand the benefit of the doubt and find some pretty pictures of City Express properties, but I’m not having much luck. Then there’s the logo, which feels like some sort of a strange cross between CarMax and Blockbuster.
I think part of the issue is that back in the day, staying at a certain brand of hotel meant you could expect a particular standard of quality or service. With growth seemingly being the only objective nowadays, you don’t get that level of reliability anymore.
In fairness, the interiors largely look generic, clean, and modern enough, unlike the exteriors.
Bottom line
Marriott has acquired City Express, a Mexican hotel franchise company with over 150 properties in Latin America. This transaction has now closed, and it’s expected that these hotels will join Marriott’s portfolio by August 2023.
Growth is great in terms of opening up new markets for Marriott Bonvoy members. However, don’t expect that this acquisition will open up any new aspirational properties.
What do you make of Marriott’s acquisition of City Express?
I've stayed at the City Centro in Mexico City and had a great stay. Clean room, friendly staff, nice rooftop patio and pool. Location was also very optimal right downtown, where there were no Marriott points options. Would definitely return there, and earning points is icing on the cake
I've stayed at a few city express hotels when driving through Baja. They are motel 6 super 8 standard. All Choice hotels I've visited in Latin America are a step up from CE.
Doesn't make much difference to me that Marriott bought them as I book Marriott hotels through an OTA as bonvoy is utter garbage, half the time points don't post and never received a single perk for being gold.
As long as they are not exterior corridor, I can see a place for them as the ibis-level property (styles, regular, budget). I would expect to see them slowly enter Texas and California over the next three years.
A lot of people want a $89 hotel near an airport or off the Interstate with the knowledge that it isn't a piece of Wyndham garbage (newer LQs exempted) that is 40 years old and full of...
As long as they are not exterior corridor, I can see a place for them as the ibis-level property (styles, regular, budget). I would expect to see them slowly enter Texas and California over the next three years.
A lot of people want a $89 hotel near an airport or off the Interstate with the knowledge that it isn't a piece of Wyndham garbage (newer LQs exempted) that is 40 years old and full of mold with a lousy bed. I will always pick a brand that I know is new construction over a conversion brand.
Now if Marriott would just sell 4P to Wyndham to get it out of my search results.
Just feels like another acquisition by Marriott with the idea that you have to stay at a Marriott hotel. Fortunately you don't and I'll do my best to keep straight that this brand is now part of Marriott. And with Marriott points being worth nothing I can imagine staying at this downmarket brand will be like 50,000 to 70,000 points ... no thanks I'd rather stay at a Hyatt or IHG brand.
"staying at a certain brand of hotel meant you could expect a particular standard of quality or service. With growth seemingly being the only objective nowadays, you don’t get that level of reliability anymore."
I disagree with this -- CityExpress seems to have a fairly consistent standard of quality, its just not a premium level. And Marriott is making the conscious decision not to fold this into Four Points or Courtyard which would make those...
"staying at a certain brand of hotel meant you could expect a particular standard of quality or service. With growth seemingly being the only objective nowadays, you don’t get that level of reliability anymore."
I disagree with this -- CityExpress seems to have a fairly consistent standard of quality, its just not a premium level. And Marriott is making the conscious decision not to fold this into Four Points or Courtyard which would make those brands inconsistent.
Holiday Inn and Hampton probably have a greater level of inconsistency within their brand because they have tried to move from "motel/inn" to "hotel" in the last decade.
A fair comparison would be comparing CitiExpress to a Motel 6/Choice style hotel, while city express plus are def in the same level of a holiday inn express/low end Hampton. I doubt much will be done with the brand in terms of quality though, as there much better Mexican hotel chains out there like fiesta inn, which in theory serve similar (albeit slightly higher) markets
I know growth and higher margin lower cost hotels is what they care about, but this brand seems like a better fit for a Motel 6 than a Bonvoy property.