Skift Take
Design Hotels is a Marriott brand that isn't quite a Marriott brand. It's more like an exclusive hotel club where 60% of owners have never run a boutique before. New boss Stijn Oyen is fine-tuning its strategy.
Stratis Batayas, a first-time hotel owner in Greece, is better at inventing creative concepts for guests than knowing the latest techniques in global hotel marketing and distribution.
That's why when he opened the luxury hotel, Manna, a restored manor house in the mountains 2 hours from Athens, he joined Design Hotels. It's a brand owned by Marriott that offers networking events and consulting services, and about 60% of the 300 participating owners are running hotels for the first time.
Stijn Oyen, who became the managing director of Marriott's Design Hotels brand in January, spoke with Skift in an exclusive interview.
Manna, a hotel in Greece. Source: Design Hotels. Design Hotels' Growth SpurtDesign Hotels — founded a few decades ago in Europe — is gaining momentum in North America. This year, it added 10 new U.S. hotels, and it now has more than 25 in Mexico.
Recent additions include Firmdale's 69-room The Warren Street Hotel in New York City and properties from