Marriott is
poised to be the first major hotel company to have a U.S. home-rental platform.
Marriott International is starting a home-rental business with the intention to compete
against Airbnb and other home sharing companies. Marriott is already the world’s
biggest hotel operator and is now trying to create a home-rental platform. It
plans to follow a pilot program in Europe in accordance with their nest global
business model. In regard to the competitor, Airbnb has aggressively moving into
the hotel industry with nearly 5 million accommodations globally. However, the
company currently facing scrutiny from different city governments as some
Airbnb locations are turning into illegal hotels. Nevertheless, Marriott executives
felt that they could not pass up the opportunity to get into the home-rental
business, as their pilot program in Europe consists of partnering with a London-
based home-rental management to provide multiple accommodation within four
countries.
The
marketing principles apply to this article in three major areas besides competition.
The first is that in getting into the home-rental industry, Marriott is expanding
on their company objectives and goals. Having a soft launch of sorts in Europe
illustrates that Marriott wants to add to their already growing global brand by
providing services to those that don’t necessarily want to stay in luxury
hotels. The second aspect that needs to be considered is the legal environment.
As stated in the article, Airbnb has already been in trouble with cities as they
are not abiding by local laws. For Marriott, they would have to factor in any
local restrictions that could be imposed on them through their home-rental properties.
In addition, they also have to consider that the fire and safety requirements
for the homes will be different compared to the hotels as well. Another marketing
principle that has been illustrated is that Marriott is expanding their target
market through segmentation. In adding a home-rental platform, Marriott will
have to create a new marketing plan for this certain industry that will attract
people to the homes, but also not impeding their hotel business; which would
create a multiple target market approach.
I chose this
article because Airbnb is starting to threaten the major hotel companies. The
fact that Marriott is trying to add home-rentals under their services shows the
shift in people not wanting to stay in hotels to people wanting to experience
their time abroad within the country themselves, best represented by people’s
houses. I believe one of the reasons why Airbnb is so successful is that people
get to stay in affordable homes without going through the hotel booking process.
Hotel companies are starting to notice this trend and, as a result, putting stakes
in the home-rental services to gain profit from potential consumers.
I think this post is interesting because I see a lot of people booking more AirBnB's. It's because AirBnB's are easier when there is a large group of people to accommodate for. I think the whole concept of AirBnB is very cool.
ReplyDeleteI think it is smart of Marriott to try to enter into the home-rental market, because it is in high demand right now. Marriott has the advantage of being a popular, trusted brand hotel service, but they will have to catch up to Airbnb, which is already established. I like that you addressed how Marriott will have to apply a multiple-target market approach, because it now intends to offer two different types of services.
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