Skift Take
Unlike some of its hotel peers, Marriott isn't giving up on its hopes of being the world's favorite travel company.
Marriott International isn't content to "stand still."
That was the overarching theme of Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson's opening presentation on Monday at the company's biannual investor day in New York.
Sorenson, along with a number of Marriott executives were in town to give investors an update on the company's three-year growth plan, which includes a goal of adding another 1,700 hotels to Marriott's already robust portfolio of more than 6,900.
Skift caught up with Sorenson in between presentations to discuss a variety of topics, from his views on recent travel acquisitions such as Airbnb's intent to buy HotelTonight to what he thinks of consumer response to Marriott's new loyalty program.
Here's what Sorenson had to say:
About That War for the Customer
Nearly one year ago at the same exact location — the New York Marriott Marquis — Sorenson spoke on a hotel CEO panel and proclaimed, "I think we are in an absolute war for who owns the customer. It's a long-term war, and 'long term' in digital space might be a few years."
That war, he suggested, was between traditional travel and hospitality companies and tech giants such as Amazon and Google.
When asked if he still feels the same, he said, "I think there is."
He said the ease with which e-commerce can handle the sales of an airline ticket or a hotel reservation makes it easy for players like Google, online travel agencies, and other digital-first companies to "obviously see an opportunity to make money, and rational economic decisions would be to say, 'How do we influence as much of the traveling community as we possibly can by having great tech tools or by offering, not just travel reservations, but airline flights, or restaurant reservations, or whatever it is?'"
He continued, "They are going to be trying to grow their business including grow their business with us. There are places where we should do business together, where they deliver real value to us. But, we also need to make sure that we are competing in their space a little bit which is, 'How do we make sure our technology is working well? How do we make sure the loyalty program is strong enough so that people are our customers in first instance that they can be?' And so, I think very much that competition is continuing."
But is it actually possible for any one company to own the customer? Or is that nearly impossible, as Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta has previously suggested?
Sorenson thinks it can be
