Marriott adds its 36th (?) hotel brand in deal with Sonder

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• Glenn says:

  20 Aug20 August 06:04

  I used Sonder in Texas last year, I have to say I was very impressed, it was easy and convenient and the luxury apartment was a very welcome no-fuss alternative to the overly expensive hotel options in the immediate area. I’d use them again.

• Greenpen says:

  20 Aug20 August 06:39

  Am I alone in being completely confused by the chain hotel groups’ offerings?

  I don’t travel for work and although I stay a lot in hotels I don’t choose a particular brand. I have used Hotels.com up to now but as many others have said, that may be about to change.

  To me the word Marriott indicates a nice mid-market property but here I am faced with 30 types within the brand! I need to do some homework here in my Air B&B house in Hua Hin. Maybe after a swim in the pool !

  • Qrfan says:

    20 Aug20 August 07:09

    Not just you. Honestly even learning the sub brand isn’t enough. A Hilton in Europe and US is a completely different proposition from a Hilton in Asia.

    • Lumma says:

      20 Aug20 August 08:36

      I’ve heard very bad things about the Bangkok Hilton

    • TGLoyalty says:

      20 Aug20 August 09:25

      Because Hilton outside of USA/Canada was owned by a completely different company until a few years back. And of course their most recent expansion has been outside US UK etc

      Anyway Marriott is a nice mid market hotel. Marriott Bonvoy is the umbrella for the 30 brands has many more brands positioned in as many spaces as they can from basic to luxury.

      Every single hotel on hotels.com is a brand doesn’t matter if it’s part of a group or standalone, 30 brands doesn’t even scratch the surface of the hotel world. All Bonvoy and Hilton etc are trying to do is get more of these hotels / brands to join their stable and in this case Sondor must have some brand equity so it makes no sense rebranding them as something else.

  • BBbetter says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:36

    Someone who books hotels.com and airbnb complains of chain hotel brands! Oh the irony!
    Given the changes in hospitality business models, i’d be shocked if two hotels in same brand can give you the same experience. There are just too many variables.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      20 Aug20 August 13:16

      with Hotel.com in particular it always makes me laugh because its literally a platform for 100,000’s of brands and no one complains “How do all these hotels co-exist”

  • Mzungu says:

    20 Aug20 August 11:49

    Not at all, although I think we’re in the minority on HfP. I avoid chain hotels and stay in independents across a wide range of types.
    I’ve stayed in the same independent hotel in Amsterdam for the past 10+ years, and my tour of India included 3* to 5* hotels, and a couple of homestays – all different, and great in their own way. I’d rather that than a sanitised experience in a chain.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      20 Aug20 August 18:06

      Which independent in Amsterdam out of interest? Looking for something in November.

• Novice says:

  20 Aug20 August 06:53

  OT; but about Marriott…

  I need to buy about 3000 points, is that possible and beneficial or am I better off buying a bigger amount?

  • zio says:

    20 Aug20 August 07:52

    Points cost $12.50/1000 so it doesn’t become cheaper if you buy more. At the moment I have a 40% bonus if I buy 2000 or more, but that may be targeted.

    • Novice says:

      20 Aug20 August 07:54

      Ok thanks

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 07:55

    You may (or may not) see that your targetted bonus increases the more you buy.

    With a 30% bonus on Amex transfers though it is a better deal to transfer those if you have them.

    • Novice says:

      20 Aug20 August 08:30

      Yh I didn’t think of that. I have 10k MR points so will transfer them but do they count as activity to keep my points active.

      • BBbetter says:

        20 Aug20 August 09:37

        They do count as activity.

        • Novice says:

          20 Aug20 August 21:27

          Thanks. I’m sorted then.

• Swiss Jim says:

  20 Aug20 August 07:21

  Personally I’ve never understood the point of Premier Inn in a global marketplace. Dominant in the UK, trying to grow in Germany but nothing else. And for a global player hardly a huge sum to buy. Why the big chains are focused on tiny brands who knows.

  • JDB says:

    20 Aug20 August 08:08

    They like all these different brands so they can expand in key places without breaching exclusivity clauses given to owners of their other brands, something that’s getting increasingly controversial. Enables them also to keep brand standards fuzzy and reduce risk if something happens to one particular brand.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      20 Aug20 August 09:27

      200 hotels is bigger than lots of the brands, Marriott already has! I wouldn’t call it tiny.

      Tiny ones will usually be rebranded.

  • BBbetter says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:41

    Are you asking about Premier Inn or Marriott introducing new brands? They are very different things. The former doesnt care about loyalty, just the cheapest room at a decent quality. Marriott is all about getting more customers into its ecosystem – offering something for everyone.

    • Mike Fish says:

      20 Aug20 August 10:50

      To be fair to Premier Inn, they drive loyalty through a consistent decent product. Terrible WiFi, really disgustingly terrible WiFi but overall a decent product.

      • Mzungu says:

        20 Aug20 August 11:53

        I don’t think it’s even a “consistent decent product” since they decided to restructure earlier this year. I used to stay in the same once every week until then. Now redundancies and restructuring – particularly of the associated Beefeater – has changed all that, it used to be packed, now it’s about 20% occupied. I couldn’t rely on breakfast being available, so I now stay at a nearby independent.

  • Blenz101 says:

    20 Aug20 August 12:53

    Premier Inn also operate in the UAE

• CamFlyer says:

  20 Aug20 August 07:48

  I think the marketing arrangements like this make sense. I have seen Sonder properties, but never paid them much attention. If I can redeem/ earn Bonvoy points, and the properties are interesting and well maintained, it makes both the properties and Bonvoy more appealing.

• Paul says:

  20 Aug20 August 07:57

  4 x 777-300ERs (Qsuite) 312/42
  1 x 777-200LR (Qsuite) 230/42
  1 x A380 461/48/8
  1 x A350-1000 (Qsuite) 281/46
  1 x A350-900 (Qsuite) 247/36

  Interesting just how economy heavy these flights are. If those were BA aircraft I suspect the number of premium seats would be much higher. The A350 900 in particular seems to have very few premium seats.
  Still it’s remarkable just how few of those premium seats get released for Avios.

  • JDB says:

    20 Aug20 August 08:04

    Yes, the relatively low % of premium seats they need to sell is significant vs BA that has double the number of business seats on the A380, up to 76 on the B777 and 56 on the A350-1000.

  • Rhys says:

    20 Aug20 August 08:55

    Surprised me too when I was writing this!

  • BBbetter says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:48

    BA benefits from a large O&D traffic in most of its routes. Even on its routes to south Asia, the premium cabins are mostly sold out.
    QR and most MEA are about connecting passengers who are more cost conscious.

    • Dev says:

      20 Aug20 August 13:15

      On any given QR flight from the UK, you will have a myriad of onward connections. Their whole strategy is move people en masse from A to B via Doha for a reasonable price and a superior product in J and Y driving onoing loyalty.

      I am always surprised at how economy travellers continue to praise QR Y even though it is 3-4-3 in the hard product.

      • BBbetter says:

        20 Aug20 August 17:08

        There arent many airlines out there with 3-3-3. Also, the main comparison is with BA and AI – not just QR, but all ME3 score high in IFE and food quality.

• PeteM says:

  20 Aug20 August 08:23

  One fewer Sky Team airline at LHR…

  • Throwawayname says:

    20 Aug20 August 08:51

    Had it not been for the SAS switch, it would have reduced their short haul offering to just AFKL.

  • Stuart says:

    20 Aug20 August 10:24

    SkyTeam almost spread 50-50 across LHR T3 and T4. T3: AM, CI, DL, ME, VS and T4: AF, KE, KL, KQ, MU, SV, VN. Assume SK will relocate over to T4 when they switch alliance.
    With many Romanian cities reachable direct with FR from STN, W6 from LTN (and LGW-OTP) and as this is HfP then it is mandatory to mention BA (so LHR-OTP). I guess it’s a price conscious market. Seemed like a waste of money/resources for RO to bother with LHR and they looked comparably expensive when I checked their fares.

    • DK says:

      20 Aug20 August 11:55

      SQ is *A

      • Stuart says:

        20 Aug20 August 14:59

        Typos cannot be fixed in submitted messages: should read as SV.

• Chris W says:

  20 Aug20 August 08:28

  I wonder why QR don’t run an all 777-300/A380 operation from Heathrow to maximise their capacity is they are so desperate for more slots?

  • Rhys says:

    20 Aug20 August 08:56

    …presumably because they want to maximise their slots in other airports too.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.