As we know, Marriott wants to grow at any cost, and often that strategy involves launching new hotel brands. Along those lines, Marriott has just announced the details of its 37th hotel brand.
In this post:
Basics of the new Series by Marriott hotel brand
Series by Marriott is the name of Marriott’s newest hotel brand, which is a collection brand in the midscale and upscale lodging segments.
The goal with Series by Marriott is to expand Marriott’s global presence by bringing well-established regionally created brands and hotels that “champion consistent quality and service” into the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio (I put part of that in quotes, since it’s not like Marriott can even “champion” consistency with any of its existing brands).
So Series by Marriott will offer regional hotel owners access to the benefits of Marriott’s platforms, including the Marriott Bonvoy program, all while maintaining their portfolio’s independent identity.
With hotels maintaining their individual branding, think of this as almost being along the lines of Autograph Collection, Luxury Collection, or Tribute Portfolio. However, Series by Marriott will likely consist of less luxurious properties than that, and there will also be more consistency between the regional properties that are part of the collection.
As it’s described, Series by Marriott properties will “deliver a simple and approachable experience for travelers with a focus on fundamentals and well-executed basics.” Hotels in the portfolio will offer quality and value, with clean and comfortable rooms, free Wi-Fi, and daily coffee or tea. Breakfast, fitness centers, and meetings and event spaces, will be available at certain properties.
Here’s how Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano describes this development:
“Series by Marriott furthers Marriott’s commitment to delivering lodging offerings in the right place at the right price with basics done well. Creating a new, regional collection brand will further Marriott’s reach among value-conscious travelers, provide additional choice for our existing Marriott Bonvoy members and guests, and offer more affiliation opportunities for local owners.”
Series by Marriott will launch in India with The Fern
The Series by Marriott brand is initially launching in partnership with Concept Hospitality Private Limited (CHPL) in India. The hotel group was founded in 1996, and has a portfolio of six brands and over 100 hotels, operating in 90 locations.
Under this strategic agreement between CHPL and Marriott, CHPL’s flagship brands — The Fern, The Fern Residency, and The Fern Habitat — will be affiliated with Series by Marriott on an exclusive basis. Furthermore, Marriott will make a small equity investment in CHPL.
The Fern Portfolio is currently comprised of 84 open properties, with 31 more hotels in the pipeline. That means the total agreement will be for roughly 115 properties and 8,000 rooms. Fern properties are expected to join Marriott’s portfolio over time, following discussions with third-party hotel owners, and execution of long term franchise agreements with owners.
Bottom line
Series by Marriott is the hotel giant’s newest hotel brand. The idea is that this will consist of a regional collection of hotels in the midscale and upscale lodging segments. This means that Marriott will be targeting regional hotel groups with dozens of hotels, in hopes of integrating them into Marriott’s booking channels, and giving them access to the Marriott Bonvoy program.
I suppose in the scheme of Marriott’s never-ending quest for expansion, this development makes sense. You’d think that Marriott’s City Express brand in Latin America would be added to this collection, since it seems to follow the same concept.
What do you make of Series by Marriott?
I always thought of Delta Hotels as a regional Marriott brand for Canada, although its now bigger outside of Canada than inside.
Wouldn't it be smarter to spend a year or two making sure the existing brands and properties are consistent and doing what they're meant to do vs. constantly adding new brands, with little marketing support, and hoping it all works out?
They need to take a hard look at Bonvoy too. I spent years and tons of money to become Lifetime Platinum, and for some odd reason, I no longer get upgraded, or really...
Wouldn't it be smarter to spend a year or two making sure the existing brands and properties are consistent and doing what they're meant to do vs. constantly adding new brands, with little marketing support, and hoping it all works out?
They need to take a hard look at Bonvoy too. I spent years and tons of money to become Lifetime Platinum, and for some odd reason, I no longer get upgraded, or really derive any benefit from the program. Maybe I don't spend enough? Maybe my business doesn't matter? I dunno. Feels like achieving lifetime status should result in something instead of the removal of everything.
At a certain point, Bonvoy should just become a booking.com/hotels.com clone which only shows properties they own. Just remove all branding, since it's impossible to tell the brands apart at this point. Then they wouldn't even have to worry about standards for brands.
The mushrooming number of Marriott (and other chains') lower tier brands is getting ridiculous.
That's a good idea
What's the difference in this then what Marriott already does the Prince Hotels in JPN? Albeit a new project name?
I wouldn't call it so as there're only a handful of Prince Hotels in Autograph Collection, I think this is more like Grand New Century hotels in China getting Tribute Portfolio double brand - Though this time Marriott invents a new brand for it.
And that's a wise move considering how in China it spooked a few property owners to drop the TP brand with the influx of below average properties and adopt regular Marriott or Sheraton branding lol.
Or Kesseler and Davenport in the USA.
Except at a much lower standard. This feels more like a Fairfield Inn price point.
Thanks for the insight, guess Marriott is pretty good at this now… Though Hyatt is also doing this and Hilton is outsourcing Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites too.
Curious if Kesseler has anything to do with the founder of Autograph Collection?
I am generally an AI skeptic, but I keep hearing of friends and colleagues who claim they use AI to help them book hotels because they find all the choices overwhelming / confusing. Those that say they are confused by the inconsistency and such of Marriott (or any other) brand will likely just be able to use a chatbot to weed out hotels in any given location in the not to distant future (you can...
I am generally an AI skeptic, but I keep hearing of friends and colleagues who claim they use AI to help them book hotels because they find all the choices overwhelming / confusing. Those that say they are confused by the inconsistency and such of Marriott (or any other) brand will likely just be able to use a chatbot to weed out hotels in any given location in the not to distant future (you can probably do it now).
Closer to the topic at hand, Marriott is finding it hard to get owners to build hotels due to high interest rates, and investors are complaining about low unit growth and higher costs to achieve unit growth. So in response, it seems like this is a conversion play aimed at groups of hotels rather than just individual hotels. Given there are more midscale hotels out there globally, this is the opportunity for Marriott to increase growth the fastest. But like most of Marriott's recent additions, I won't have much interest, so I will probably just ignore it. No harm if Marriott just adds a bunch of stuff I will ignore. Hilton, surprisingly, has added the most brands in recent years I have interest in (Graduate, Small Luxury Hotels, etc).
One of the issues that Marriott has in terms of new hotels -- at least in the United States and Canada -- is that owners view some markets are maxed out. Most markets of any size already have at least one if not multiple Marriott properties across multiple brands.
In some cases, Marriott has given certain owners a geographic franchise to certain brands. So Marriott can't open a new hotel under a certain brand...
One of the issues that Marriott has in terms of new hotels -- at least in the United States and Canada -- is that owners view some markets are maxed out. Most markets of any size already have at least one if not multiple Marriott properties across multiple brands.
In some cases, Marriott has given certain owners a geographic franchise to certain brands. So Marriott can't open a new hotel under a certain brand within so many miles of an existing hotel. I've read that legacy Starwood had more geographic franchisees than legacy Marriott. This was apparently an issue in Southeast Asia, where some owners sued Marriott.
In other cases, some owners don't want to open the second or third Marriott or the second or third Westin in a market. So, Marriott needs a new brand. Hence all the brands.
With Marriott's desire to become just a booking platform it makes sense to partner or acquire existing brands. Marriott gets profit without having to reinvent the wheel.
"Consistent quality and service”
There is nothing "consistent" about Marriott anymore.
Oh my, another Marriott brand! I can't wait.
I just tried searching in a metro area last night for an upcoming stay, and there were so many hotels in that area that the Marriott website could not display the rates in the listing.
My only remaining question is how will we celebrate ringing in Marriott's 40th brand when it happens? Some kind of Bonvoy Ball?!
As a Marriott Titanium, I find the continued addition of new brands exhausting. It's impossible to differentiate between them and remember which brand is supposed to provide which benefits to elites. And there are massive differences in quality within the same brand within the same country. Which means the Marriott Bonvoy brand and the hotel brands like Westin, Renaissance, etc mean nothing given the inconsistency. Which means each individual hotel has to be researched before...
As a Marriott Titanium, I find the continued addition of new brands exhausting. It's impossible to differentiate between them and remember which brand is supposed to provide which benefits to elites. And there are massive differences in quality within the same brand within the same country. Which means the Marriott Bonvoy brand and the hotel brands like Westin, Renaissance, etc mean nothing given the inconsistency. Which means each individual hotel has to be researched before each stay to determine overall quality, room conditions, elite treatment, etc.
Eventually, I think this will not end well for Marriott. If the Marriott platform has a bunch of brands I have never heard of and if I have to research each individual hotel due to inconsistency, and if elite benefits are continually declining, eventually it will become just as easy to research and book hotels outside of Marriott.
With less than 30 percent of hotels worldwide managed by Marriott, let's just admit that Marriott is no longer a hotel company. It's merely a booking platform.
The passive aggressive comment about Marriott’s consistency is really unwarranted. Hilton and IHG have the same problem, and Hyatt has 15% the number of properties as the big brands, so really doesn’t count. If you actually travel for a living (aka every week), there is no comparison to Marriott in general quality and accessibility. Not saying they’re perfect - far far far from it.
@ IntlBizTraveller -- I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree. I respect if you feel otherwise, but I think I'm not alone in thinking that Marriott struggles with consistency. I mean, have you seen how many hotels try to play games with elite benefits? To be clear, I didn't say that other hotel groups are better, but instead, consistency just hasn't become a priority for the major hotel groups, as growth has increasingly been the only...
@ IntlBizTraveller -- I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree. I respect if you feel otherwise, but I think I'm not alone in thinking that Marriott struggles with consistency. I mean, have you seen how many hotels try to play games with elite benefits? To be clear, I didn't say that other hotel groups are better, but instead, consistency just hasn't become a priority for the major hotel groups, as growth has increasingly been the only metric by which they measure success.
I think IntlBiz was commenting on consistency in quality and accessibilty, not elite benefits. He even suggests he travels for work, so probably isn't using points. A standard room at a Marriott or W hotel is pretty much the same worldwide. And a Marriott or W usually is better renovated than a Sheraton or Westin, so even that is consistent.
Other than the JW Marriott in Rio, I think most of the Marriott full service brands are "consistent".
@ Nate -- In theory, I see how one could make that argument for brands like Marriott and Westin. But Marriott has over 35 brands, and I don't think anyone could argue there's consistency between them. Like, is there consistency across Tribute Portfolio properties, Courtyard properties, etc.? I'd definitely argue not, even taking elite perks out of the equation.
@IntlBizTraveller, Hyatt has properties in all locations where meaningful business travel happens. You won’t find Hyatt on the side of the interstate in rural America, but if you’re traveling there for work, your career is sad as shit.