The emergence of savvy travellers with high demands on their time is driving Marriott to refine their product offer across all their brands.
Marriott senior vice president operations planning and support Robin Uler said the modern traveller had become “very sophisticated”.
“People are much more savvy about what they are allowed to choose, and what they will ask for,” she explained. “[And] people are fitting more trips in, doing multitasking with the Blackberry, and laptop, and wireless. There is just a barrage of information at people – so the need for re-energising and decompression becomes paramount. Providing guests with access, and then allowing them sanctuary time is very important.”
Uler said the operational focus of Marriott hotels had changed as a result of the new traveller demographic.
“We are seeing that people who travel see hotels as a ‘third place’,” she explained.
“We used to think people wanted it to be like ‘home’. But people aren’t stupid, they know they aren’t at home! But many people enjoy it, even if they are working and stressed, they enjoy doing it. So what we are doing is looking after customers – high speed internet, great wireless, a deskchair for work, the ability to relax in an area.
“We were trying to make it exactly like home, but it is not – you are not with your family, you’re travelling, you have different eating habits. Also we found a lot of people said they like being by themselves – they enjoy being away. They can work until three in the morning guilt free. Or they can go to a wonderful restaurant and not explain why they didn’t get to go with their family.”
Marriott has also used information about its guest profiles to shape the product offer, for example by introducing organic and sustainable products to the JW Marriott’s room service menus.
“[JW guests] are accomplished, and well to do, but they are not very flashy. Their watch may be an incredibly expensive watch, and they will know it, but it might not necessarily have the glitter or the big name – it will be enough that the guest knows [it is expensive],” she explained.
“So we feel we need to take out unnecessary clutter in our guest rooms, because the guests may see it as excessive.”
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