Marriott’s Guest Entertainment Platform: Updates and New/Upcoming Standards
As cutting-edge innovations continue to drive change in the hospitality industry, Marriott has been developing and reviewing next-generation television entertainment products. Customers have indicated they would shift market share for digital services and amenities that give them flexibility, as well as provide the same features they have at home, to whichever brand is the first to move.
Marriott is taking advantage of this opportunity through our new entertainment program. We have defined functionality that would elevate the guest experience closer to what guests are expecting. Ultimately, the newly designed guest entertainment products and features will form the basis of an overall digital platform that will meet the needs of the next-generation traveler.
NEW BRAND STANDARD
In order to bring this new functionality to market, a new brand standard has been published to become effective November 1, 2014 for Marriott-managed and franchised hotels in the U.S. that are:
- Newly opening hotels without a signed TV content contract.
- Going through a room renovation process with TV replacements and/or a re-licensing PIP and have an expired contract with their current TV content provider.
- Hotels with expired TV content contracts who choose to move off of month-to-month contracts into long-term contracts.
Gen Y travelers have indicated that “connect my device” is one of the top ways Marriott can win their business. Additionally, frequent business travelers (including next-gen business travelers) rank “connect my device” and “stream casting” (enabling a guest to stream his/her own content, such as content from an Apple TV or Google Chromecast) among the top hotel and brand digital differentiators for the future. All other properties should remain on month-to-month contracts while we finalize testing, complete vendor certifications and evaluate guests’ interest in these additional functionalities. Results are expected in Quarter 2, 2015. Once complete, we intend to update the standard to apply to all hotels and to introduce Internet TV and connect my device functionality.
KEY FUNCTIONALITY & ELEMENTS OF THE STANDARD
- 40 HD channels (slight change to current standard)
- Branded welcome screen
- Interactive channel guide
- Channel banner
- Digital guest channel/content directory (to replace paper-based directories)
- Video on Demand optional (no change to standard)
- Remote 24×7 system support to ensure availability
- Set-back box architecture to ensure scalability
View the full brand standard for all details.
CERTIFIED VENDORS
Based on previous technology roll-outs, we know it is critical to implement a multi-vendor solution whenever possible. We have followed the same approach for entertainment and are releasing this new brand standard with two certified vendors – Enseo and Guest-Tek – to provide this new functionality. We believe that having at least two vendors will create a competitive cost environment, and we are currently working on certifying a third vendor, which is expected to be approved by Q2 2015. It is difficult to compare costs between this new standard and the services previous vendors have provided because each installation is customized by channel line-up, equipment selection, and more. That said, when looking across the system, the monthly costs proposed by our two certified vendors should be very competitive with what is currently being offered by existing vendors (excluding required CAPEX investment for new technologies). We will continue to monitor these costs to ensure they remain competitive.
Information about our current vendors can be found on MGS.
TELEVISIONS
Marriott’s solutions to guest entertainment involve using a set-back box that is designed to ensure scalability. This solution provides additional benefits to hotels in that this solution does not require hotels to purchase SMART TVs, which are much more costly and are not scalable into the future. Beyond the cost savings, avoiding SMART TVs: eliminates the need for additional TV security, ensures that hotels need not replace TVs that are in line with the standard, circumvents the expected short life of SMART TV products and innovations, and provides a platform to innovate more frequently at less cost.
We will continue to work with the Executive Technology Advisory Council (ETAC) and our other advisory councils to ensure the direction for the standard, the product, the selection of vendors, pricing and other details are clear and meet owner and franchisee expectations.
Additional information, including FAQs and platform details, is available on the entertainment systems, TVs & programming pages on MGS. Ongoing communication and alignment with our owners and franchisees is critical to our shared success, and we will continue to keep you informed of our progress.
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