Marriott backs brand trust and loyalty to best Airbnb
Marriott thinks customer service, trust and loyalty schemes will help it take share from the likes of Airbnb. Hotel giant to launch Homes & Villas brand after pilot showed guests stay three times longer than in hotels (Marketing Week).
Key points:
- 2,000 "highly curated" high end properties at $200 to $1,000 a night
- People searching for stays of three nights plus to be served links to Homes & Villas in that location
- Homestays will earn loyalty points that can be spent in hotels
- Firm promises "seamless experience"; suggests existing home rental market presents "highly uncertain and complex" choices to customers
- European pilot showed average stay more than three times hotel stays; and 90% of bookings came from Bonvoy loyalty app members
- Airbnb makes reverse play, moves into hotel market with 10 floors of Rockefeller Plaza in New York to create "curated, authentic NYC experience", and circumvent city rules on short-term apartment rentals
Marriott's play is both defensive and offensive but 120 million loyalty app members is potentially powerful. Marriott is backing brand trust, customer experience management and that army of loyalty app members to enable a partial pivot.
Airbnb is encroaching in Marriott's turf ahead of its expected IPO. Last month the company invested in Delhi-based OYO, which plans to become the world's biggest hotel chain - and knock Marriott off its perch - within five years. That followed Airbnb's March acquisition of HotelTonight, a last minute hotel booking firm, for north of $400m.
Announcing the HotelTonight deal, Airbnb said "nearly 90% of guests who first used Airbnb to book a hotel room and returned to our platform for a second trip then booked a home." Those words should worry hotel groups. They also suggest Marriott's claims about customers facing "highly uncertain and complex" choices may be overblown.
Other hotel groups will be watching to see how Marriott's foray into homestays pans out. Hilton said it has no immediate plans to follow suit - though did not rule it out altogether.
