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Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is rolling out yet another new hotel brand to appeal to budget-conscious travelers.
The new brand, which the Bethesda-based hotel giant unveiled Wednesday morning, is Four Points Express by Sheraton, and will launch in Europe, Africa and the Middle East over the next few years.
The first of these new hotels is expected to open in Antalya, Turkey, later this year with 52 guest rooms and the company has a deal in place for another Four Points Express in Bursa, Turkey, but did not say when that would open. Marriott is also eyeing a 2024 opening for a 201-room Four Points Express in central London following “a significant renovation” of an existing hotel.
It's unclear how many Four Points Express hotels it plans to open but Marriott said that all of them will be conversions of other hotels and not new construction. Satya Anand, Marriott’s president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that 68% of the midscale hotels in the three regions are unbranded, presenting a large opportunity for Marriott to pitch its model to independent operators. Marriott is the world’s largest hotel chain and its loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, has more than 185 million members.
Four Points Express by Marriott will be the company’s 34th hotel brand and the third it has unveiled over the past year targeting travelers for whom price is a key factor. It recently launched its City Express by Marriott brand across Latin America after acquiring Hoteles City Express, a Mexico City-based operator of more than 150 midscale hotels in dozens of cities, and also has two extended-stay brands in the works, Apartments by Marriott, and StudioRes, which will be rolled out in the U.S. and Canada.
Rival Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) is also targeting budget-conscious travelers with the recent launch of its Spark by Hilton brand and the planned roll out of its own extended-stay brand, currently dubbed Project H3.
Across all of its portfolio, Marriott plans to add between 230,000 and 270,000 net new rooms globally over the next three years, bringing its total number to nearly 1.8 million rooms.
At an investor presentation in Miami Wednesday morning, company executives reiterated previous guidance that revenue per available room, a key industry metric, will climb 12% to 14% this year, up from previous guidance of 10% to 13%, and projected that it will increase by 3% to 6% in each of the next two years.
In the second quarter, it reported revenue per available room of $132.17, up 10.7% from the same period in 2022.
Insight into Josh Harris’ ownership of the Commanders
"This is not about an investment. This is about a chance. ‘I had financial success in business and now I have a chance to buy my team I grew up with.’ And yes, he is going to make it a much better business. But his dream is to hold up a f---ing trophy and bring a Super Bowl to the region."
— Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics Inc., to ESPN about Josh Harris’ purchase of the Washington Commanders. Rubin is a former minority partner in the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, pro sports franchises also owned by Harris. Rubin bowed out of ownership of both teams in 2022 because of Fanatics’ increasing business in sports betting and its partnerships with athletes.
Odds and ends
- The Senate voted Tuesday to advance a short-term funding measure to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week. The vote puts the Senate on a path to pass a continuing resolution later this week that it could then send to the House to avoid a shutdown on Oct. 1. (The Hill)
- For the first time in a quarter-century, the year’s homicide toll in Washington has surpassed 200 before October. (Washington Post)
- Like several big-name tech CEOs, Amazon.com Inc. chief Andy Jassy has taken control of an enormous business from an idiosyncratic founder and at a difficult time. As with other second-generation bosses, Jassy’s success will not only depend on whether he is a visionary like the man who started the company. It could also be shaped by how well he navigates Wall Street and Washington. (New York Times)
- While the Purple Line light rail is expected to be completed around 2027, Montgomery County officials say they don’t want to wait that long for repairs to the roads damaged by the project. (MoCo360)
- The TSA screened 34,745 passengers at BWI checkpoints on Friday — the highest daily count since late 2019. (WTOP)
- Arlington County is chipping in $70,000 for more study of bus rapid transit along U.S. Route 7 for a planned line that would ultimately connected the Mark Center in Alexandria with Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons. (ARLnow)
