Marriott International Inc - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Marriott International Inc - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Summary

Marriott International Inc (Marriott) is a hospitality service provider that operates hotels and restaurants. It operates, franchises and licenses hotels, residential and timeshare properties under several luxury, premium and select brand names. Its brands include the Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, St. Regis, Westin, Renaissance, Marriott Hotels, Le Meridien, Gaylord Hotels, Marriott Executive Apartments, Delta Hotels, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels, Courtyard, and SpringHill Suites. Marriott offers accommodation, hotel reservations, timeshare vacations, flight and hotel packages, and car rentals services. It also operates loyalty programs, including Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Marriott Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest. The company’s operations span North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, and Latin America.

In October 2016, Marriott International introduced its first Hotel Innovation incubator, M Beta at Charlotte Marriott City Center, as a part of its strategy to transform the traditional hotel experience. The innovation lab, which functions as the world’s first hotel in ‘live beta’ was launched with the aim to improve customer experience with keyless entry for guests upon arrival, digital experiences in the fitness studio, and rapid prototyping throughout the hotel, allowing guests to test and provide feedback in real-time.

In 2016, Marriott Hotels launched the Marriott TestBED startup accelerator program in the European region, aimed at providing training, mentoring, and access to TedX events and speaker coaches to startups through the hotel’s partnership with the organization, and creating future guest experiences. As a part of the six-week pilot program, the hotel selected two startups - Dazzle, an in-room voice-activated personal assistant, and Jambo, a business traveler networking mobile app, and allowed both these startups to test their products in Marriott properties in the region.

With its growing focus on innovating guest experiences with a focus on technology and design, Marriott launched a new pop-up hotel innovation lab in 2017 to create an interactive model hotel experience in its Aloft and Element brands by collecting and using real-time feedback from guests.

As a part of its innovation strategy, Marriott signed a partnership agreement with Accenture Interactive and 1776, an incubator and startup network in 2017 to launch a new startups program, Travel Experience Incubator. The incubator program was launched to provide mentorship and guidance to travel industry start-ups on business models, business operations, and customer insights.

In January 2022, Marriott International announced the opening of the Marriott Design Lab, a research and development lab for the hotel sector, in order to tap into further innovation in the industry. The Marriott Design Lab will occupy 10,000 square feet at the company's new headquarters in downtown Bethesda. Marriott will use the lab to collaborate with technology and other companies to evaluate not only how specific technologies perform in hotel rooms, but also to make rooms more efficient. The Design Lab is intended to address short-term, well-defined challenges including enhancing housekeeping efficiency and cleanliness, as well as innovative ideas, concepts, and technologies.

This report provides insight into Marriott's digital activities, including its digital transformation strategies, its innovation programs, its technology initiatives, its estimated ICT budget, and its major ICT contracts.

Scope

• Marriott International is focused on growing its engagement levels with guests by interacting with them through a variety of channels, including mobile app, digital guest services, contactless check-in and check-out, chat, service requests, mobile key, and more. It offers a range of services to its customers through its mobile app, with and tailored services. It also provides customized content to Marriott Rewards members to personalize their services during travel and stay.
• Marriott has integrated social media approach into its omnichannel marketing strategy to enable a focused customer engagement via social media platforms. The company has launched a real-time marketing command center “M Live studios” to track the social media pulse of guests by following hashtags and geofence, which enable them to identify the brand presence, user trends, and feedback to provide services in an enhanced way.
• Marriott is using predictive analytics to identify and attract the most profitable customers and service areas, by analyzing huge volumes of customer data like spending patterns, travel type and frequency, traveling locations. Analyzing this data at a regional level helps it to understand customer needs. It is also using AI-enabled chatbots at many of its hotels to enable guests to chat with hotel staff.
• As a part of its connected strategy, Marriott has been developing a smart hotel room prototype equipped with connected solutions including mobile and voice optimized controls and personalized presets that can respond to customer preferences, thus bringing an integrated experience.

• Gain insights into Marriott's tech operations.
• Gain insights into its digital strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into various product launches, partnerships, and acquisition strategies.