 "Rajeev Menon, President, Asia Pacific excluding China, Marriott International")
Marriott International, the largest hotel in India in terms of inventories, has launched, with an exclusive partnership with CG Corp Global’s Concept Hospitality, a global brand “Series by Marriott”, a midscale and upscale lodging segment. Rajeev Menon, president, Asia Pacific excluding China, Marriott International, in a face-to-face interview with Roshni Shekhar highlights the significance of the new brand and the deal (with Concept) to boost the hotel’s leading position in India. Edited excerpts:
What does the global launch of “Series” signify for Marriott’s long-term brand positioning in India and globally?
This is one of the soft brands we have launched. In India, we have 158 open hotels and another 112 are under construction. These are spread across 42 cities and they represent 17 brands. We have a good concentration of luxury, premium, and upper upscale spaces. Through “Series” we saw an opportunity in the midscale space as India has strong growth in the middle-class segment.
Over the past couple of years, Marriott has either acquired or created midscale brands, one being City Express, which we acquired in Mexico, and the other being Four Points by Sheraton in Japan, but there were no soft brands.
In India, we recognised that The Fern (hotel brand under “Concept Hospitality”) had built a great reputation with a market presence for close to 30 years. Through this partnership, we would create a powerhouse in that (midscale) segment as they (Concept Hospitality) would have access to all our distribution systems and the biggest loyalty programme in the world, 237 million members. With this, we go from 42 cities to 90. We have a partnership with ITC Hotels for the luxury collection and now if you think about the midscale segment, it will be The Fern -- Series by Marriott. It’s the affiliation play.
Marriott is said to be investing a small amount in Concept Hospitality. What will this investment be and by when will it be initiated?
We assess the market all the time. But it’s rare for Marriott to make a strategic investment. We will not divulge how much or how the deal is structured. But we are making a small equity investment in Concept Hospitality.
How is this partnership expected to boost Marriott’s revenue and market share in the country?
We are the largest operator in India by room count. To me it’s this ability to grow our distribution from 42 cities to close to 90 cities. India today is the fifth-largest market for Marriott and in the next couple of years, it will become the third-largest market in the world.
What kind of transition or rebranding will the existing Concept Hospitality properties undergo?
They are still in the process of changing into Series by Marriott. We have to work our way through the hotel brands under Concept Hospitality. We will start integrating them into our system over a period by the end of this year or early next year.
India has 17 brands from Marriott. Are there plans to add any new global brands in India this year?
We just did one. That goes up to 18 and hence, no, not now. We have about another 12 hotels (under the existing brands) we are going to open this year in India.
Where does India stand for you in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region?
I have some 22 countries across APAC, except China. India is a significant contributor. We have about 30 per cent of our distribution in India. It clearly is the largest in terms of the number of hotels that we have backed by Japan (about 112 to 114 open hotels in Japan).
In my world, we have 640 hotels open and a pipeline of another 400 hotels and, yes, India is a significant contributor to that.
What are the other regions globally where Marriott plans to expand the “Series: brand? Absolutely. Other global counterparts can too find strong regional brands and affiliate with it.
(Marriott is also in active discussions about the “Series by Marriott” brand with owners in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, Europe, West Asia, and Africa, according to its release.)
