When the JW Marriott Hotel Beijing opens in November, the luxury hotel will be 3,000th property operated by Marriott International, Inc. The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing will also open in November. Both the 23-story, 588-room Marriott and the 305-room Ritz-Carlton will serve as anchors for the city’s newest development, China Central Place.
The JW Marriott Hotel Beijing will include the Quan Spa, featuring an Indoceane Ritual comprised of four themed stages, Mediterranean, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese. The spa will offer several water-based treatments such as private hot tubs and Vichy rain shower treatments, and use ocean-based products by Thalgo. The hotel will also five restaurants and lounges.
China Central place is a mixed-use complex with eight residential buildings, green space, and a sports center. Commercial facilities comprise more than 230,000 (nearly 2.5 million square feet) of office space and 160,000 square meters (over 1.7 million square feet) of retail space for luxury shops, including Ferragamo and Gucci. The complex is located in the heart of Beijing.
The China expansion is part of a major growth program for Marriott International. In the first six months of 2007, the company added over 100 hotels. In Beijing,
Marriott expects to have 11 hotels operating when the 2008 Olympics, with a projected two million visitors, opens there. Additional expansion is planned throughout China, with twenty more Marriott International brands scheduled to open by the end of 2010. In 1989 Marriott opened its first Asia-Pacific hotel, the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong and now has more than thirty hotels in the region.
“With 18 brands globally, we have the broadest lodging and timeshare portfolio in the world, and by year-end 2009, we expect to reach a total of nearly 600,000 rooms, including 120,000 outside the U.S.,” said Mr. Marriott.
Marriott has been adding brands as well as updating and repositioning its existing brands. Family-oriented Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott, and a new boutique brand are under development.
For the Marriott and Renaissance hotels, public space has been updated to a “great room” concept, allowing visitors to move easily between work and play. Guest rooms in both provide 32-inch flat-screen televisions which can be turned into a personal entertainment center.
Both Courtyard, a select-service brand, and Residence Inn, an extended stay brand, have been given updated designs. Marriott is repositioning SpringHill Suites as a moderately priced brand for the style-conscious. Also in the moderately priced range, TownePlace Suites is an extended-stay brand featuring both living and working space in its suite rooms. In addition, more than 100 new hotels are planned for Marriott’s lowest cost brand, Fairfield Inn.
