Miami Airport Marriott: Switching it Up
Hotels and Resorts
Written by Ashley McGown   
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Miami Airport Marriott: Switching it Up
This airport hotel is set to wrap a renovation project that will help it remain successful in years to come.
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Miami Airport Marriott was established in 1972 and within a decade grew to be a lodging and meeting facility that was home to slightly less than 800 rooms. The hotel has remained roughly the same size throughout the years, but it has undergone many significant changes, including a restructuring in 1995 that split the property into a three-brand operation.

Today, the Miami property is home to a 366 full-service Marriott, a 163-room Residence Inn, and a 300-room Courtyard. According to John Mulrey, general manager, the campus recently underwent a major renovation project, set to wrap at the end of October, that is part of an organization-wide effort focused on improvement.

The project began to develop in 2006 and primarily focused on the section of the property that is now a Courtyard. At the time, the hotel was branded as a Fairfield Inn, but this was changed as part of an effort to help the campus better align with the contemporary market and expectations of travelers.

Miami Airport Marriott: Switching it Up
John Mulrey, general manager
“We knew it would be expensive for us to try to improve the Fairfield Inn, so we chose to put together a plan that called for repositioning, and that effort helped the hotel establish a more competitive presence in its market,” Mulrey said.

Because it’s located just one mile from an airport, Miami Airport Marriott serves a customer base that consists primarily of transient and business travelers whose visits average one or two nights.

“We spend a lot of time evaluating what our desired customer segments are,” Mulrey said. “Before the renovation project broke ground, we looked at the spectrum of segments and assessed what needs and desires were present, and we spent a lot of time evaluating the channels and deciding who to go after.”

An assortment of amenities
When developing the renovation plan, the team at Miami Airport Marriott worked closely with its owner, Thayer Lodging Group, and kept the needs of its customers in mind—its current customers as well as the additional population segments it hopes to attract in the near future.

In addition to rebranding one of the hotels on the property, the team added a full-service Starbucks, a 2,800-square-foot health club, and an assortment of other amenities. The MI Great Room, a concept Marriott has been rolling out across many of its national properties, was also introduced at the Miami campus.  

“The idea behind this concept is to open up our lobby space and make it more interactive,” Mulrey explained. “We want to encourage work and relaxation so we designed the area in a way that we hope will prove attractive to almost anyone. We want people to want to come out of their rooms to fully enjoy their experience.”

A great number of communal tables and conveniently placed outlets that allow travelers to take advantage of technology were incorporated into the design, both of which have helped to create a high-energy, user-friendly environment.

To give transient travelers a taste of Miami culture, Mulrey and his team also added a food and beverage area that puts a unique spin on Latin food. “It’s called Cane Fire Grille. It’s a Nuevo Latino concept that’s very relevant to the area we’re in,” he said. “Travelers can get a flavor of the city that’s unique without being overwhelmed.”

A green effort
The property’s team also made an effort to incorporate a number of green initiatives into the renovation plans. Recently, Marriott’s corporate team highlighted the property and chose it as one of the sites to be evaluated by World Tourism Council, as part of a corporate-wide effort to earn global recognition in the area of sustainability.

Florida Green Lodging, a state-wide sustainability organization, designated the Miami Airport Marriott campus as a one-palm property according to its standards, but in the coming months, Mulrey and his team hope to earn the two-palm certification.

As part of the effort, the team has improved its organization-wide recycling program as well as its energy management program. “Our recycling program is probably the most prolific. We recently began to use skirtless tables in many areas, for example,” Mulrey said. “We make sure we’re doing everything we can in that respect, and we try to make it visible to the customer too, so they know it’s something we’re serious about.”  

Although it’s clear corporate Marriott and transient customers both appreciate the green initiatives, they’re not the only parties demanding them. According to Mulrey, many large organizations are beginning to take sustainability initiatives into mind when choosing which hotels they want to partner with. He names Hewlett Packard as a company that adopted this mentality.

Attracting this type of company is especially important in regards to the customers who visit Miami Airport Marriott with the intention of using its meeting space. The property already had a significant amount of meeting space prior to the renovation, and the project will add 2,000 square feet of additional space in the Courtyard.

“The ideal size of a meeting here is between 50 and 100 people. We attract a lot of businesses in the consulting and financial industries.”

Although the renovations won’t change the customer segment Mulrey and his team target in terms of meetings, he believes they will help enhance the groups’ experience on property. “We want to create an ‘every business traveler’s oasis atmosphere,’” he said. “We want them to forget they’re at an airport property and get a real sense of Miami when they enter our lobby.”
 
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