Marriott’s CEO on new brands, Bonvoy growth and keeping things cool at W

25.01.2024 - 19:19 / thepointsguy.com / Anthony Capuano

Cynics typically say that bigger doesn't always equal better when it comes to major corporations like Marriott International.

Yet Marriott, the world's largest hotel company, has clearly tried to maneuver a tricky dance in recent years so its brand and loyalty strategy make it the go-to brand for a wide swath of customers.

Considering booking a vacation rental on Airbnb? Why not try Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy instead. Want to unwind with the see-and-be-seen scene? You have Edition and W on the luxury end (more on that later) while Moxy increasingly becomes a formidable player (and TPG Award winner) in the select-stay space.

The company is on track to be a dominant force in Las Vegas thanks to a partnership with MGM Resorts International that is expected to officially launch in the coming months. Over the last year, Marriott also did what most pundits thought the company was trying to avoid all this time: offer a robust lineup of affordable brands with newer acquisitions and organic launches like City Express, StudioRes and Four Points Express by Sheraton.

"It's absolutely not a pivot, and from a strategy perspective, it is not a binary. It's not a case of, let's shift resources away from luxury towards midscale," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said this week during a press breakfast at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. "They can coexist and grow and thrive in parallel."

TPG later caught up with Capuano for a one-on-one interview to get the latest on what all these expansions and partnerships mean for the future of the hotel behemoth.

Marriott added three affordable brands last year with the acquisition of Mexico-based City Express, the launch of Four Points Express by Sheraton and the StudioRes extended-stay brand.

This comes amid a broader industry push into the affordable space with Hilton's launch of Spark and LivSmart Studios, IHG Hotels & Resorts debuting Garner and the creation of Hyatt Studios.

It might be a bit of a head-scratcher for some, as the leaders of many of these companies in the past seemed to think limited exposure to the economy and midscale space was a strength rather than a weakness.

But Capuano noted travel and lifestyle shifts during the coronavirus pandemic made the expansion into midscale a no-brainer.

"If you're a sociology professor, you have 100 years of research you're going to be able to publish on. The far-reaching impact of the pandemic is going to be studied for the next century," he said. "One of the byproducts is this view that you can live this transient nomadic lifestyle: The attitude of employers has changed. The attitude of employees has changed."

But those living a nomadic lifestyle probably don't want to spend $150 or more a night on