Marriott International, Inc. owns a large number of brands: one of the newer, more modern hotel brands, Moxy Hotels is expanding.
•Nearly 70% of all hotel rooms under construction for Marriott are beyond North America’s shores. They need to cater to a much more international set of travelers moving forward.
•The new CEO, Sorenson, is targeting Generation X and Millennials. He wants to toss out ‘stodgy suits and forever check-in lines."
•Moxy wants to create a stylish atmosphere where self-service means you can do what you want, when you want without holding you up.
Marriott’s Innovation Lab is gearing up to offer hospitality features, content and social means for the guests in these communal spaces to easily connect. Our team was offered a chance to develop the new Moxy Hotel experience.
Our experience focuses on:
•Productivity •Autonomy •Enjoyment •Lean Service
What we discovered durning research is the check-in/out process is the primary irritation for the hotel guest & is completely unnecessary due to the constant connectivity of our target users. The front desk becomes the help desk as Moxy guests are able to engage in or accomplish any activity without the need to interact with the staff directly.
[Note: this was a class project only; we did not work with Marriott]
Our competitve analysis shows that there is a market opportunity for an hotel experience that is perceived to be high quality at a middle to low cost to the guest.
Our team focused on the mobile site first, as it offered the most opportunities for improvement. Key additions include an optimized & streamlined booking process, as well as the digital key for guests.
Home Screen - Mobile Interface
Guest does not have a current reservation.
Home Screen - Mobile Interface
Guest has a current or ongoing room reservation.
The updates to the guests' experience & to the Moxy website were driving to replace high gloss with high functionality to give guests the freedom to direct their personal experience how they would like it, when the would like it.
Offering a common experience across the primarily used devices, mobile, desktop, & television (the one thing that is in every hotel room) drove efficiency for the target users. Removing unecessary points of human interaction & processes for checking-in/out would show the greatest efficacy for giving Moxy guests the feeling of autonomy & productivity they crave. Reducing necessary staff, as well as rendering services only when requested ought to allow Moxy Hotels to operate at a lower cost.
Next steps to completing the upgrade to the Moxy user experience start with full integration of Marriot's Opera system, to allow guests to set room preferences, services prefencese, & more fluidly integrate guest arrival/departure to allow for 24 hour booking blocks, as opposed to the tradition day/night booking.
