The Millennial cohort is coming of age and ready to take its place in the travel market. To help them along, IKEA is partnering with Marriott Hotels to develop a new affordable hotel chain across Europe, targeted directly at the Millennial market. How is this hotel chain different from the more established hotels? According to Marriott, Moxy Hotels was designed for people with a younger sensibility with a contemporary style. The hotel was researched and crafted to reflect the changing lifestyles of the Millennial market segment.
Although IKEA is a partner in the deal, the hotel will not be using IKEA furniture. However, in traditional IKEA cost-management style, the construction costs will be managed by using rooms which are pre-fabricated offsite and then assembled in a modular type of construction (no jokes about super-sized allen wrenches!).
Moxy will open hotels in Milan, Frankfurt, Berlin, London, and other European cities. Each hotel will have 150 to 300 rooms and will be LEED-certified. Sustainability and technology features such as mobile check-in, Wi-Fi, flat-screen TV, and built-in USB ports help meet the needs of the savvy Millennial traveler.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss with the students the Millennial market. Why is this market important to hotels?
- Bring up the Web site: www.moxyhotels.com and show the video.
- Divide students into teams. Have each team describe the target market, key message, pricing, and promotion for the hotel.
- What are the key considerations for attracting Millennial travelers? Are other hotel chains able to duplicate the formulat?
- Compare Moxy Hotels with other hotel chains: Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Country Inn, etc.
- Build a table comparing key components of Moxy’s design with competitors.
Source: Brandchannel.com, Wall Street Journal, other news sources
