Traditional triumphed over avant-garde in the upper upscale
and upscale tiers in BTN's 2014 Hotel
Chain Survey, with Marriott International's flagship brand and Courtyard brand
garnering the highest overall scores from buyers.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts' first-place finish, its first
since 2007, shows a shift in buyers' attitude compared with recent years, when
boutique-style brands ruled the tier. In 2013, trendy Kimpton was the top
brand, but that brand slipped to 10th this year.
[Please click here to
view the digital edition of the 2014 Hotel Chain Survey, featuring all rankings
and downloadable as a pdf.]
Marriott, meanwhile, improved its score significantly year
over year and rebounded from a sixth-place finish in 2013. Similarly improved
this year were second-place Omni Hotels & Resorts (ranked 11th in 2013) and
third-place Westin Hotels (ranked fifth in 2013).
Bjorn Hanson, a clinical professor at New York University's
Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, said the top
brands shared "what's become one of the attributes of upper upscale
hotels: looking for a reliable traveler experience."
"They're three traditional lodging brands, not trying
to look flamboyant or create odd architecture," he continued. "Omni's
a bit of an outlier, being on a smaller scale and bordering closer to luxury,
but it has a strong central control and has become a very respected brand."
Traditional, however, does not mean cookie-cutter. Marriott,
top-rated for its public business facilities, several years ago began rolling
out its "great room" lobby concept, designed so that "every
lobby gives you a sense of locale," said senior vice president of brand
management Paul Cahill.
Marriott also scored notably higher than its competitors for
its handling of group business, both from a sales and service side as well as
meeting facilities. The brand has launched several group initiatives in recent
years, including its Red Coat Direct App, which lets meeting planners make
simple onsite requests—a change in temperature, for instance—rather than have
to track down a hotel staff member. Next year, Marriott plans to evolve that
app to handle some billing aspect, Cahill said, and it also is testing a
Pinterest-style platform through which planners can share ideas.
Despite sitting at a price point higher than many of its
competitors in the tier, Omni earned the top score for the overall price/value
relationship. The brand also is one of the few in the tier to offer
complimentary Wi-Fi across its portfolio to guests who are loyalty program
members, regardless of their status within the program.
Omni—which has significantly bulked up its portfolio in recent
years both through acquisitions and new builds, including properties in Dallas,
Fort Worth and Nashville—also was top-rated for the physical appearance of its
properties. Chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales Tom
Santora said that stems from the brand's development of hotels with "great
facilities, though no two Omnis are alike."
"Some brands rely on the same bedspread, mattress and
carpet, and that's great, but at Omni, we think our customers are looking for
something different as they travel," he continued. "They want local
color whether or not they get a chance to explore the city, and we do that
through the art, menus and music that's playing through the hotel."
Starwood Hotels & Resorts' Westin brand earned the
highest scores in the tier for its service, in-room personal amenities and, in
a tie with Marriott, consistency across the brand. Westin was a pioneer in
branding in-room amenities—such concepts as its "Heavenly Bed" and "Heavenly
Bath" have launched imitators in competing brands—more recent service and
amenity development has centered on wellness, global brand leader Brian
Povinelli said. Such initiatives have included healthier foods in restaurants
and event catering, a meditation program and workout gear available for guests
to rent.
Personalized service also has been a key focus, he said. "Last
year, we started getting some of that infrastructure in place, to get data in
the hands of associates, and we've created a new position around guest
outreach," Povinelli said. "Now we can act upon that knowledge. If
they've requested things in a reservation, like a connecting room, we can give
pre-arrival confirmation."
Overall, the upper upscale tier has had a strong year. As of
August, year-to-date upper upscale demand in the United States was up 3.8
percent year over year, while supply increased 1.5 percent, according to STR
Global. As such, occupancy during that period increased 2.3 percent, and
average daily rate increased 4.9 percent.
Courtyard, Doubletree
Lead Upscale Tier
With a mix of select- and full-service brands populating the
upscale tier, buyers gave top ratings to one of each. Select-service Courtyard
by Marriott earned the highest score in the tier, with Hilton's full-service
Doubletree brand very close behind.
Courtyard, improving from a third-place finish in 2013,
earned top scores for arranging group travel, data quality, service, physical
appearance and business amenities both in guest rooms and in public spaces.
Doubletree, up from a ninth-place finish in 2013, was the top brand in terms of
its sales staff, meeting facilities and in-room personal amenities. Both brands
tied with the highest score for overall price/value equation.
Hyatt Place, which had been the top scoring brand both in
2012 and 2013, rounded out the top three.
Courtyard, which essentially created the select-service
upscale model, has evolved to a massive global brand. It's on track to open its
1,000th property next year and is "growing at an extraordinary pace
outside of the United States," said Janis Milham, Marriott senior vice
president of modern essentials and extended-stay brands.
Renovations within the brand have helped keep its scores for
appearance and amenities high, she said. The brand several years ago introduced
a multi-functional, socialization-friendly lobby, and it now has spread through
more than 90 percent of Courtyard's portfolio. More recently, it developed a
new guest-room décor designed to accommodate younger travelers, which now
appears in more than 50 Courtyard properties.
Doubletree also is becoming an increasingly international
brand, said its global head John Greenleaf. Its 400th hotel opened this month
in Cairns, Australia, and the company now is in 34 countries; six years ago, it
was only in one. Of the more than 150 hotels in its pipeline now, only 39 are
in the Americas, he said.
As to its strong performance in the chain survey this year,
Greenleaf said Doubletree is improving both among internal guest surveys and
with quality-assurance visits as it "focuses on quality of the product and
the experience, which continues to pay off."
As with the upper upscale tier, upscale hotels in the United
States have been making strong gains in both rate and occupancy this year,
according to STR Global. Upscale hotel development is above the national
average overall, with a 3.5 percent increase in supply year over year through
August, and demand was up 6.7 percent. ADR during that period increased 4.8
percent, and occupancy increased 3.1 percent, the firm reported.
This report originally
appeared in the Oct. 13, 2014, edition of Business
Travel News.