Marriott Makes Changes to Attract Millennials

Millennials travel more than their older counterparts and travel brands are taking notice. Marriott is just one, releasing a series of features throughout the last year or so to attract millennials for a variety of reasons.

Just recently, Marriott opened its millennial-geared brand Moxy in Times Square. The name has been doing well in Europe, but is just beginning its U.S. expansion. The design-heavy interior is affordable, but still cool.

However, the Moxy expansion is hardly the only new effort targeting millennial travelers. Earlier this year, Marriott Rewards introduced its Master Classes perks, a lineup of personalized and hands-on learning opportunities available to members. Experiences include everything from basketball tips from NBA players, to cooking classes from Michelin-starred chefs. One of the reasons the offering was unveiled? A statement from the company reported 94 percent of millennials make personal improvement commitments and are willing to spend nearly twice as much as Baby Boomers on self-improvement each month. Marriott Rewards is just helping them out a little.

The changes are nearly endless — lobbies turn into social spaces and social activities turn into early morning group runs around popular and picturesque cities.

Perhaps it’s partially thanks to Marriott’s millennial workforce. For the second year in a row, Marriott International was named one of the Best Workplaces for Millennials, ranked 14th in the world.

“This hyper-connected, tech-savvy generation makes up a significant portion of our workforce — in fact, millennials accounted for 69 percent of all Marriott hires in 2016 in the United States alone. Personal happiness and wellbeing coupled with company pride are at the center of our culture and millennials are particularly attracted to job opportunities where they can feel good about themselves and their teams, have a passion for the work and also the organization overall,” said David Rodriguez, EVP and global chief human resources officer, Marriott International.