A New Business Plan for Marriott Corporation

This report presents a new business strategy for Marriott Corporation to expand into the bed and breakfast industry. By investing in existing bed and breakfasts, Marriott can offer a unique and adventurous travel experience while leveraging its brand name. The report outlines the investment plan and benefits of this new venture.

A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
A Business Plan for Corporation
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Executive Summary
The report deals with a new business strategy that can be associated with the company Mariott
Corporation. The new strategy that was mentioned here was the idea of bed and breakfast. If the
company chooses to invest in the pre-existing bed and breakfast places, then would have to
invest a very little amount of money but they will get the benefits. As bed and breakfast are
owned by private residents, the company will just have to work with the owners and renovate the
place but other than that no human resource is necessary. The business will never fade away as
everyone loves to travel luxuriously and if they get the opportunity to travel and stay at place
which is associated with the Marriott brand name then the customers will definitely keep on
expanding. The report provides a plan of investment and benefits of Marriott associating with the
bed and breakfast.

2A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Context.........................................................................................................................................3
Need.............................................................................................................................................5
Strength and Weakness................................................................................................................7
Core Competencies......................................................................................................................8
Pricing..........................................................................................................................................8
Refinement...................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Introduction
One of the leading competitors in the hospitality industry is Marriott Corporation.
Founded by Willard Marriott and Frank Kimball, the company in the year 1957 was called Hot
Shoppes, Inc. Twin Bridges Motor was the first hotel that was opened under the Marriott
Corporation in Arlington County, Virginia, United States (www.marriott.com, 2019). In
Acapulco, Mexico the international hotel under Marriott was built. From 1993 onwards, Marriott
was known as Host Marriott Corporation. Marriott has more than 4200 properties across the
globe in 80 countries and territories (www.marriott.com, 2019). According to some sources,
61.9% of Marriott’s properties are based in the United States of America (www.marriott.com,
2019). Marriott also allows franchises to operate a single hotel of a specific size at a particular
site. No exclusive territories are given to the franchises. After including all its properties, Marriot
is the largest resort chain and hotel in the world both by its annual revenue and number of units.
This report will focus on developing a business plan for an innovation that can be associated with
the Marriott Corporation. The chosen innovation for this report is opening a chain of bed and
breakfast hotels, where the brand name of Marriott will be expanded on the bread and breakfast
industry (Morales, 2014).
Discussion
Context
Marriott Corporation is a leading hospitality company of the world. In the year 2015,
their revenue was more than $14 billion (web.archive.org, 2016). The franchises of the company
are under 19 brands, which include, the Ritz Carlton, BVLGARI, JW Marriott, Marriott

4A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Executive Apartments, Marriott Vacation Club, Protea Hotels, Spring Hill Suits among others
(web.archive.org, 2016). The company has multiple awards winning guest loyalty programs such
as the Marriott Rewards and The Ritz Carlton Rewards, under which there are more than 55
million members (www.marriott.com, 2019). The company in the year 2015, acquired Delta
Hotel & Resorts, they took over their branding and management and franchise business, giving
them the status of the largest full service hotel in Canada. $1.94 of the company’s common stock
was repurchased by the company and the company paid $250 million in dividends
(www.marriott.com, 2019). The gross booking for the company crossed $12 million, which
represents a 14% increase year over year; this suggests that Marriott gets 28% of the system-
wide room nights books worldwide (www.marriott.com, 2019). The stakeholders of the company
includes independent owners, workforce and vendors, communities and customers, franchises
and lastly, the few hotels that are owned by the company and the majority which they manage
(Zakaria, Brewer & Gajendran, 2013).
The company stands on the idea of providing world care services in the hospitality
industry. The brand’s philosophy is to take proper care of the associates that means the people
that are working in the organization will be taken care by the organizations and in turn they will
take care of the customers. This has been the motto of the company since day one and the
company has been working for the past 85 years. They have always given the people that are
working for them the first priority and this has earned them a lot of award and recognition.
Marriott’s prime goal from the beginning was to ensure that the customers wishes and demands
comes first, the brand has proven that they stick to their values and make sure that the customers
get what they want. Innovation has also been a part of their brand from the very beginning. They
break the status quo and create something new for their customers.

5A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
This is something that they have heavily focused on over the last few years, and thereby
have established a very fruitful customer value for the customers. The main thing that it has
come up with for the customers is to create an ambience that is coming of the age. It is for this
reason that all of the Marriot Hotels have an exotic architecture, and this group of hotels are
considered to have one of the best architectural designs in the entire world. They sell this a
specialty and are highly focused on aesthetics, which is anything but oriental for the Marriot
Hotels. Apart from this, Marriot Hotels have always believed in serving guests with the utmost
humility and respect. They would want to make sure that they have the competitive advantage in
the industry, by ensuring both a five star experience in the exotic architecture and top class
customer service, therefore creating an unmatchable customer relationship in the process.
Therefore, it could be said that relationships play an important part in the philosophy of the
organization.
From the time the company has formed, their goal was to provide a luxurious experience
to their customers and enhance their experience of a vacation and leisure time. A new strategy
that the company can work on and it will help the company dive into a new territory in the
hospital industry is the opening of a series of bed and breakfasts. Bread and breakfast are very
common among the people who do not like the idea of staying at a hotel but just for the purpose
of staying a night and eating the breakfast the morning after. The company’s 54% workforce is
women and 65% are minorities (fortune.com, 2019). The new bed and breakfast will enhance
their profile, bed and breakfasts are usually small places managed by a single person or a small
family. The company can invest their money on few bed and breakfast which already exist and
give them their brand. There are many places where tourists go to travel and they either hike or

6A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
stay overnight and leave in the morning, these are sometimes located in the interiors of a city and
those who like to explore new places, they visit those places (Banerjee & Chua, 2016). The
brand Marriott is mostly known for the luxurious vacation experience and holiday, the brand can
now dive into providing adventurous holiday experience with acquiring bed and breakfasts at
locations which have not been explored. The name Marriott will give the small places a lot of
boost and the small places will also be benefitted from the biggest name in hospitality getting
attached to it. It will prove as a successful venture for the company as today many travelers
wants to experience adventure and luxury together.
Need
Bed and breakfast is a very a niche section of the hospitality and travel business. Bed and
breakfasts are mostly private residence that provides a room and the morning breakfast to
travelers (Chen, Chen & Lee, 2013). Most of the bed and breakfasts have no employees as the
owner of the residents provide for the customers. The bed and breakfast can be availed by
everyone who desires to travel for a short period of time, today many travelers travel for short
business trips, where they only want to stay at a place for night and have to catch a flight early in
the morning, in that case, the traveler prefers to stay in a place where the cost is not high and the
customers wants to avail a comfortable stay, and the most suitable to avail is a bed and breakfast.
Hence, the desired demographic are the people who have to take short trips for work. The other
people who can avail the bed and breakfast are the people who like to travel and travel frequently
but expect a home stay everywhere they go. There are a lot of people who travel throughout the
year but who do not like to stay hotel, their desire is to enjoy the place like not like an traveler
but a native person so they prefer to stay at a bed and breakfast, rather than staying at an
elaborate hotel. These travelers can be anyone from a single man and woman to a family who

7A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
travels frequently but generally bed and breakfasts are not too big in size so chances are that
rather than families, couples and bachelors would avail a bed and breakfast.
While the idea is compelling enough for a possible expansion, it has to be taken into
account that the location of the service also has to play a role in the expansion. For example, the
location has to be in a location which is often visited, but not much stayed at. A perfect example
of this would be Bella Baita. This is a BnB service based near the Italian Alps, situated about two
hours from the location. It is for this reason that the main guests it gets are people who intend on
going to the Alps. This is because the spot provides for a perfect resting spot for the long journey
to the Italian Alps. Such is a location that the hotel would be requiring for the purpose of
successful expansion.
The customers who usually avails a bed and breakfast are the ones who want to escape
the hotel experience and like to live in a place where they could get the feeling of home. The
customers of bed and breakfasts are also the ones who come for a short trip or business trip,
where they can stay for a night leave for a early morning flight.

8A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Source: (www.referenceforbusiness.com,
2019)
Basic Demographics
Currently bed and breakfast is trying to
focus their attention to the business travelers
(Wardman et al., 2015). Marriott in general
cater to a lot of travelers who visit a city for
the purpose of business. Many businessmen
and women who travel to a city for the
purpose of business, do not prefer staying in
expensive places as it is only for a night, in
that case they can choose a bed and breakfast,
where they will not only get to stay overnight
but will get the assurance of the brand
Marriott. Apart from business traveler, the bed
and breakfast facilities also cater to tourist
who like travelling and exploring places and
prefer adventure over luxury. They crave for
deeper connections and the only connection
that they build in a big hotel is when they
check-in. The people who will choose to be
Type of Guests:
Married 80%
Homeowners 82.2%
Professional occupation 36.4%
Executive occupation 10.9%
Administrative position 10.3%
Household income (median) $73,000
Graduate degree 31.3%
College graduate 40.5%
Some college 21%
25 to 34 years old 24.3%
35 to 44 years old 23.2%
45 to 54 years old 29.5%
Primary purpose of the trip:
Tourists 31%
Special occasions 30%
Business travelers 15%
Visiting family 14%
Attending meetings 10%
Reasons for staying at a B&B:
Personal touch80%
Charm of building 78%

9A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
part of the bed and breakfast will want to experience traveler’s life and also live in a place where
they will get the brand assurance from Marriott (Kandampully, Zhang & Bilgihan, 2015). The
company can invest some their money to the already existing bed and breakfasts and make a
precedent in this field where no other company has delved into. A local owner who has
knowledge about the local side seeing’s and the places around will also prove helpful to the
traveler.
When the company invests their money in the local bed and breakfast, they are choosing
to explore a new dimension of the travelling and hospitality business. Both the hospitality and
the travelling business go hand in hand. Marriott has only ventured into the area of luxury
holidays and in the area of adventure travel, Marriott does not have any ventures (Deale, 2013).
Travelling is not something that everybody can afford and even if they can, the brand Marriott is
expensive, whenever a person travels, they cannot choose to stay in Marriott as it on the
expensive end so, and travelers often chose to stay in small inns and bed and breakfast. If
Marriott invests their and their brand name into bed and breakfasts, customers will automatically
be attracted to those places, because they are getting the Marriott experience with the a cost of
bed and breakfast. Even if they have to spend a little more than the usual, they will do it because
they are getting to experience what Marriott has to offer.
Choosing a bed and breakfast to expand the business of the company will be beneficial
for the company. The company will set a precedent in the field of travelling business. The
travelling business is unexplored by the big hotel companies as they generate most of their
revenue from the business travelers and luxury holidays. The company will not have to invest
much because most of the work will be done by the residents who manage their own property.

10A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Without investing a lot the company gets to enjoy the benefits of the business. The business of
the company will increase and they will be the first large scale hospitality business to do that.
Behavioral
Behavioral characteristics in market segmentation to the behavioral characteristics that a
segment in the market exhibit, which are usually of interest to the business trying to target them.
In this context the general people who tend to avail BnB services are people who do love to
travel, or their occupation requires them to travel. This is because of the fact that the hospitality
industry itself runs on people who travel, to give them a shelter during their stay in their
destination. It is for this reason that Marriot has to ensure that they reach out to people who have
to travel, to let them know that the group is taking initiatives to make sure that travelers get to
have a stay for a short duration of time when they need to, and that they are right by their side
when they need that, and that too, at affordable prices.
This is all the more reason why the organization must think of making sure that the BnB
service is situated in a suitable location, where people do travel, or have to travel for specific
purposes. A BnB is not ideally required to be situated in the urban regions. It is ideally located in
locations that have a tourist attraction or a value attached to them. For example, Haj could be a
perfect spot for the purpose as well. It is because thousands of pilgrims have to travel to the
place, which is not necessarily for a long time. It is for this reason that the organization could
step in and establish a value by creating a class BnB, which would be of immense help to the
pilgrims as well.
Another behavioral characteristic that the organization would have to look out for would
be the tendency to stay back under a shelter for a short duration of time, when they need a shelter

11A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
while traveling. Some people tend to arrange a shelter for themselves, while some seek to find
one. The target for the organization would be to influence people who intend on finding one. It is
for this reason that the main thing that has to be done is to make sure that proper marketing has
to be done with the proper messages, post a thorough market research, with proper messages, and
appropriate marketing tools are used to reach out to the intended audiences.
Strength and Weakness
The tangible assets of the company are huge. The company has its properties all across
the globe over almost 80 countries and territories (Ivanov & Mayorova, 2015). Although the
brand Marriott is mostly associated luxury vacations and they do not have any experience in the
field of adventure holiday. They would have to invest a sum of money, in case of a small facility
approximate money that is needed is $20000 to $30000, and in case of larger facility the money
an approximate amount that can be invested is $40000 to $50000, these amounts are pretty low
when compared to the yearly turnover of the company (Tang, 2015). Marriott earns monthly
more than billion dollars, which means that by investing a very little the company gets to enjoy
the benefit.
The customers in today’s world want to enjoy and have a luxurious trip but they almost
all the time frown at spending a lot of money on everything. With Marriott engaging their brand
to the bed and breakfast industry, the customer will definitely get attracted, they will be spending
the usual amount or a little more but they will get to associate themselves with the brand of
Marriott. Business traveler as well tourists are now looking for places where they can escape
from the city life and enjoy, every traveler wants to go away from the concrete jungle and live
close to nature, so Marriott is mostly a five star hotel but with the bed and breakfast the company

12A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
will be giving a luxurious yet adventurous experience to the travelers (Charterina & Aparicio,
2015).
Introducing a new idea would not mean a lot money or human resource engagement (Al-
Refaie, 2015). Bed and breakfasts are usually managed by residents and the money that they
need to be invest in is bare minimum and they do not need any more human resource as the
residents who manage their properties usually take care of the property, few renovations have to
be done but nothing more than that. The brand name gets attached to the pre-existing bed and
breakfasts. The money that needs to spend is on marketing and promotions. The company has to
put up a lot of money in promotions as the customers need to be aware of the fact that Marriott is
doing something new and innovative. The familiar bed and breakfast will have the Marriott
touch.
This brings the conversation to the next weakness. The brand name would just be
attached to the existing building, and it would just be an acquisition. Even if there is significant
investment on the renovation of the interior to keep up with the standards of the brand name, it
could be in vain because of the fact that the previous BnB could have had a bad reputation. It is
for this reason that the people would still not want to visit the BnB, and even if they think about
it logically, they would still not want to stay there because of the prices. Marriot already has a
standard and sustainability goals for which it is known to have a high pricing. Furthermore, after
the renovation costs, it will try to recover them, and the prices would be even higher. People
certainly would not find logic behind such a high price for a short period of stay.

13A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Core Competencies
The longevity of the concept of bed and breakfast is more considering that the lives of the
people are getting busier by the day and everybody wants to escape the hustle of the city life and
when it comes to business travelers, they also look for cheaper places because business travels
are usually for a night or a very short period (Espinoza & Ukleja, 2016). In the light of this,
Marriott can invest into this business as the returns are guaranteed and also the amount the
money that is invested on the initiative is very less so they are losing a lot on this initiative but
gaining a lot. The longevity is more because the travelling never really stops. No one could
possibly point out a single and specific market competitor for the expansion, as every tourist
attractions always have an established BnB service, and Marriot would obviously have a pricing
disadvantage in the area, due to the purpose of keeping up with the standards of the brand
Marriott.
Pricing
The company will have to invest something between $20000 to $50000 per house, which
is not a lot considering the money that the company earns. The company needs to spend $40000
per bed and breakfast, if the company acquires 10 bed and breakfasts the money that need to
spend is $400000. The money that the customer pays will not decrease because they already
book a bed and breakfast knowing the money. The money that they pay can increase because the
customer will know that they will be staying in a place which has the brand name of Marriott.
The company should invest in a quite a few numbers of bread and breakfast and that will bring
them more business. There competitions in this area from Air BNB, they also offer homestay to
their customers and have become quite popular in this sector. The below chart shows the cost the
customers’ needs to bear during traveling season and non-traveling season.

14A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Source: (www.referenceforbusiness.com, 2019)
Refinement
The company will provide a feedback form to all customers whom they will have to fill
up and this will give them an understanding of the areas that they can improve and the most
profitable aspect of the business (Hamilton, Huie & Pickover, 2013) . Customer feedback along
with the feedback from the residents who own the house will help the company understand the
aspects which needs an immediate improvement.

15A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Conclusion
This reports concludes that the if the company Marriott, who is a leading competitor in
the hospitality business invest in the bed and breakfast scheme, it will benefit them highly, as the
investment is very less and they get to enjoy the profits of the business. The business will
become successful because, traveling is something everyone enjoys and the bed and breakfast are
very cheap so many customers are attracted to them so if Marriott choses to invest in the
business the customers will know that they are paying the money and getting the benefits of the
brand Marriott. However, weaknesses do lie in the form of threats. As the report points out, it
would be absolutely disastrous if the acquired BnB already has a bad reputation in the market
and Marriot spends a wholesome renovation cost for the purpose of keeping up the standards.
Furthermore, as per the standards of the hotel, the pricing of the BnB services wold be pretty
high, and not a lot of people would find the benefit behind spending such a chunk of money for
such a short time of stay.

16A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
References
Al-Refaie, A. (2015). Effects of human resource management on hotel performance using
structural equation modeling. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 293-303.
Banerjee, S., & Chua, A. Y. (2016). In search of patterns among travellers' hotel ratings in
TripAdvisor. Tourism Management, 53, 125-131.
Charterina, J., & Aparicio, G. (2015). A comparison of antecedents of satisfaction in city break
traveling. Revista Española de Investigación de Marketing ESIC, 19(2), 71-82.
Chen, C. M., Chen, S. H., & Lee, H. T. (2013). Interrelationships between physical environment
quality, personal interaction quality, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in relation to
customer loyalty: The case of Kinmen's bed and breakfast industry. Asia Pacific Journal
of Tourism Research, 18(3), 262-287.
Deale, C. S. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Tourism Practices of
Marriott International. International Cases In Sustainable Travel & Tourism. 1st ed. East
Carolina: Goodfellow Publishers International Cases In Sustainable Travel & Tourism,
103-117.
Espinoza, C., & Ukleja, M. (2016). Managing the Millennials: Discover the core competencies
for managing today's workforce. John Wiley & Sons.
fortune.com. (2019). Marriott International. Fortune.
Hamilton, I. R. A., Huie, W. J., Li, J. S., & Pickover, C. A. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,527,307.
Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

17A NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR MARRIOTT CORPORATION
Ivanov, G., & Mayorova, E. (2015). Intangible assets and competitive advantage in retail: case
study from Russia. Asian Social Science, 11(12), 38.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Bilgihan, A. (2015). Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 379-414.
Morales, P. (2014). Bed and Breakfast Market Research Report - SBA Clearinghouse. SBDCNet.
Tang, T. W. (2015). Competing through customer social capital: The proactive personality of
bed and breakfast operators. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 20(2), 133-151.
Wardman, M., Batley, R., Laird, J., Mackie, P., & Bates, J. (2015). How should business travel
time savings be valued?. Economics of transportation, 4(4), 200-214.
web.archive.org. (2016). Wayback Machine. Web.archive.org.
www.marriott.com. (2019). About Marriott International | Corporate Information. Marriott.com.
Zakaria, S. A. S., Brewer, G., & Gajendran, T. (2013, November). The influence of competitive
factors on industrialised building system (ibs) decision-making: construction stakeholders
‘perspective. In 23rd International Business Research Conference (pp. 18-20).
www.referenceforbusiness.com. (2019). Bed & Breakfast Business Plan - Statement of purpose,
Description of the business. Referenceforbusiness.com.