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Tags: Hotel News / Marriott Hotels / Bill Marriott / Ian Schrager / Schrager Hotels by Marriott / Peter Sanders / → All Tags

Bill Marriott and Ian Schrager To Do Boutique Business Together

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning on the hotel industry's strangest bedfellows to date--Bill Marriott and Ian Schrager.

The 75-year-old Marriott hotelier (and blogger!) has wooed the Gramercy Park Hotel designer and former club boy to create a boutique hotel brand for Marriott Hotels.

The paper reports that Schrager will be involved in the design, creation, and marketing of this new boutique brand. Marriott will also have no "overt presence", similar to the chain's Ritz-Carlton brand. Meaning the brand's name won't be anything like "Schrager Hotels by Marriott." Still the plan is quite aggressive for this new Schrager brand:

Marriott says it hopes to have five hotel deals signed by the end of the year, with a goal of 100 hotels under development globally within 10 years.

Such hotels will pop up in key markets like Los Angles, Miami, Las Vegas, London and Singapore first.

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Tags: Hotel Hype / 1 Hotels / Barry Sternlicht / Hotel News / Peter Sanders / → All Tags

'1' Joins the Ranks of Oddly-Named New Hotel Chains

It looks like numbers are replacing lowercase letters when it comes to new hotel chains.

Barry Sternlicht, the former CEO of the Starwood chain who oversaw the launch of W Hotels, has announced his latest luxury hotel chain, called "1." (Remember he already has another one in the works called "Crillon" which we decided was code for Crunky Millions.)

1 is going to be 1 big eco-friendly luxury chain, with the first 1 opening in downtown Seattle in 2008 (see Google Earth image above.) The 1 brand will also feature residences and is designed to compete with Starwood's current luxury lines as well as the Ritz and the Four Seasons.

After Seattle, 1 will open in Scottsdale, Paris, Mammoth Mountain Ski  Resort and Ft. Lauderdale. Of course, NYC, LA, San Fran and DC won't be ignored.

Peter Sanders of the Wall Street Journal has the exclusive detes today on the hotel's eco-friendliness (ie. big tax break):

To set the new brand apart from an upscale hotel field that has become increasingly crowded in the past few years, the company is billing itself as "the first luxury, eco-friendly global hotel brand." The Natural Resources Defense Council will serve as an environmental adviser and the new hotels will all be built to standards set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Now, is it just us or is the song "One" from the Chorus Line musical playing over and over in your head? One...singular sensation....

Related Stories:
· Sternlicht Makes Another Move in Luxury Hotels [WSJ]

Tags: Marriott Smoking Ban / Hotel News / Marriott Hotels / Peter Sanders / → All Tags

Breaking News: Marriott Says Butts Out

The Marriott Smoking Ban has been elevated to OpenThread Status, Comment Here

Marriott Hotels has made a huge announcement in today's Wall Street Journal and those of you puffing away on your cancer sticks with your morning coffee ain't gonna like it.

Peter Sanders writes that the hotel chain has decided to ban smoking in every room of its 2,300-plus hotels in the U.S. and Canada (including the hotel's other brands like the Ritz Carltons and Renaissance hotels), "in an effort to extinguish an increasingly common source of guest complaints -- the smell of lingering cigarette smoke."

At first, this sounds a little more drastic than it is since 90 percent Marriott's guest rooms were already non-smoking. But the hotel chain goes one step further banning smoking from public spaces that includes restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and employee work areas. (Uh-oh, we feel like Marriott's gonna lose more than a few workers this week.)

If you do get caught smoking, Marriott will hit you with a $200 to $300 cleaning fee and any extra charges that could occur in the room needs to be taken out of service. For those who can't go without a smoke you can hit up one of the hotel's designated smoking areas which has to be 25 feet away from the entrance, so essentially in the parking lot.

You still have the rest of the summer to smoke away in Marriotts but by the end of September the no smoking edicts will be in full force.

What do you think of Marriott's No Smoking policy? Does it make you want to stay at a Marriott now or are they just ruining the fun? Send us your thoughts or post your comments below.

Image via LotteryMonkey/Flickr

Related Stories:
· Marriott to Ban Smoking From All Rooms [WSJ]

Tags: Hotel News / Peter Sanders / → All Tags

W Goes Brand Loco

Today's Wall Street Journal focuses on W Hotels seeking new and interesting partnerships with consumer brands--essentially taking the hotel beyond room and board, spa and restaurants.

We already saw the brand jump into bed with Yahoo! by offering the Yahoo! Link service at select Sheratons but the hotel chain is going even further.

One such partnership is with Victoria's Secret Lingerie line that would give guests discounts on bras and underwear as well as be able to score tickets to the label's sizzling fashion shows.

Another partnership (not yet finalized) with Time Warner media company would place a Los Angeles bureau of the consumer mag, Entertainment Weekly, in the W Westwood Hotel.

The hotel will also serve as the hub for AOL's celebrity interviews and video clips which can later be streamed online only for Starwood Preferred Guest's eyes.

Additionally, other mags under the Time Warner label will be available in-room at other Starwood Hotels, but will be charged like a mini-bar item. You break the seal, you buy it.

More possible options for guests include 10-minutes free calling cards from Sprint, early screener versions of movies for which guests give feedback and content from the Cartoon Network for the the Westin Kids Club.

With all this around, we wonder if Starwood even wants to be in the hotel business anymore?

Related Stories:
· Starwood's Secret [WSJ, sub. req'd]
· Yahoo!Link@Sheraton Debuts Today [HotelChatter]