Marriott International has partnered with boutique hotel creator, Ian Schrager, to invent a new brand concept that aims to revolutionise the hotel industry.
The new lifestyle boutique hotel brand, which is yet to be named, aims to ”take the hotel industry to a new level,” according to Marriott, by combining luxury with personalised service and original design.
As many as 100 hotels are planned for the new brand, in key gateway cities throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. The properties will be a combination of new build, conversion and renovation projects, each with an average size of 150-200 rooms.
Marriott chairman and CEO, J.W. Marriott Jr., said: ”These hotels will be an excellent complement to the Marriott portfolio of brands and allow us to use our global platform and ability to create something completely new, different and original - the first truly global branded boutique lifestyle hotel on a large scale. We expect the brand to set the standard for decades to come.”
Schrager, who introduced the first boutique hotel in 1984 with the opening of the Morgans Hotel on New York's Madison Avenue, has since opened the Royalton and Paramount with his late partner, Steve Rubell and now runs the Ian Schrager Company, having left the Morgans Hotel Group in 2005.
”People today are sophisticated and they understand good design, quality, originality and commitment to excellence,” said Schrager. ”They also expect and deserve impeccable, modern and gracious personalised service that is at the same time luxurious, yet down to earth.
”It is the ultimate balancing act of these apparent contradictions to create a hotel that is simultaneously specific and customised, yet universal. We intend to make this type of lodging widely accessible and available for the first time in the key destinations across the globe and to everybody around the world who wants it.”
Locations to be explored include cities such as new York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Las Vegas in the US; London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Rome in Europe; and Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo in Asia.
”The scale of this brand requires the reach, resources and expertise of a global player like Marriott, while the innovation necessary calls for the experience and originality of the category”s most accomplished entrepreneur, Ian Schrager,” added J.W. Marriott Jr.