Skift Take
Even if Sandals Resorts isn't worried about major hotel brands like Marriott entering the all-inclusive space, more hospitality giants are likely to swoop in and start scouring the market for franchise deals. There is too much unbranded supply to ignore.
When the world’s largest hotel company enters your home turf, that might induce panic for some resort operators. But Jamaica-based Sandals Resorts International isn’t exactly shaking in its boots.
Marriott added 19 all-inclusive Carribean resorts to its portfolio earlier this year, putting the hotel company on track to be one of the largest global operators in the sector. Some in the travel orbit saw this as a shot across the bow, given Marriott’s emphasis on the power its branding and loyalty program might bring to the sector.
Sandals, which has massive brand recognition for all-inclusive resorts thanks to extensive advertising across North America, doesn’t see Marriott as an eye-to-eye competitor.
“They're an incredible company and a very, very powerful company, but we just do things differently,” said Adam Stewart, executive chairman of Sandals Resorts. “It's an opportunity for their loyalty members to earn points in a non-branded, two-star operation [or] two-and-half stars.”
If that argument sounds familiar, it's because it's the same one many have with respect to Marriott's strategy around vacation rentals: more a benefit to Bon
