Marriott Flexes Its Extended Stay Muscle
Photo Credit: Marriott's extended-stay brands like Residence Inn offer the resilient kind of business hotel investors are chasing these days. Marriott International
Skift Take
Don’t let the multibillion-dollar deals from Blackstone and Starwood Capital for brands like Extended Stay America cloud one's brand judgment. Marriott is the massive player in the extended stay hotel sandbox — and has a leg up in appealing to more lucrative business travel.
Everybody’s talking about — and investing in — extended-stay hotels, and the world’s biggest hotel company would like its decades-long presence known. It is even making a few tweaks to appeal to even more customers on this increasingly competitive playing field.
Blackstone and Starwood Capital Group’s two extended-stay hotel deals — a $6 billion joint takeover of Extended Stay America last year and a recently announced $1.5 billion deal for a WoodSpring Suites portfolio — is a testament to how investors see long-term viability in the sector.
Extended-stay hotels have an image as being more of a budget-minded sector, but Marriott International is in the space with a mix of mid-priced and higher-end properties, which provide things like kitchenettes to appeal to guests wanting a longer stay.
Bigger extended-stay brands like Residence Inn can appeal to more business travelers who may not be as familiar with Extended Stay America, which also courts residential users, and want to earn points on a bigger loyalty platform than is found with the Choice Hotels-owned WoodSpring. Extended Stay America and WoodSpring Suites might garner headlines as of late, but both brands are significantly smaller than Residence Inn, which had a little more than 850 hotels, according to Marriott's last annual report to the U.S. Securities and
