At ALIS last month, the Marriott leader waxed about Mr.
Marriott, noteworthy trends and risk taking.
LOS ANGELES – Marriott International President and CEO Tony
Capuano still tries to speak with “Mr. Marriott” at least once a week, and he
calls those moments “gifts.”
“He has this innate ability to focus you on what’s most
important because these jobs – given the breadth of our portfolio and global
footprint – can feel a little like whack a mole, and his ability to kind of
center you on the task at hand is just a gift,” Capuano told Hotel Investment
Today during a brief one-on-one interview at ALIS last month.
He [Mr. Marriott] navigated the company through some of the most existential threats we ever faced and did it in an effective, graceful way. The ability to tap into that is just invaluable to me.
Tony Capuano
Capuano said Chairman Emeritus Bill J.W. Marriott, Jr. likes
to call him, as well. “He goes, ‘I just want you to know I’m still alive and
kicking,’” Capuano said with a grin. “He’s still so passionate and so
interested in our people, our partners and our business... Someday, I’ll
retire, and I’ll look back on my career, and say, ‘What a privilege to have the
opportunity to tap into all that institutional knowledge and all that history
and all that wisdom. He navigated the company through some of the most
existential threats we ever faced and did it in an effective, graceful way. The
ability to tap into that is just invaluable to me.”
What’s also valuable to Capuano is his current senior
leadership team, which he said met recently to discuss and interrogate their strategy
to make sure they still had the right priority areas, focus and paths to win.
After robust dialogue, Capuano said they concluded that they did.
“We want to offer the best brands and experiences to our
guests and members. We want to have the most loyal member base. And we want to
be in more places, meaning continue to grow – not growth for the sake of
growth, but grow so that we continue to strengthen that Bonvoy ecosystem,” he
said.
Among the big buzzwords over the past year surrounding
growth and likely discussed at the strategy meeting are “outdoor lodging” and
“wellness.”
Capuano explained Marriott’s approach to outdoor lodging
opportunities by first suggesting there is a large, growing segment of the
traveling public that’s breathing recirculated air the entire time they travel.
“It’s a big, beautiful world. They want the opportunity to get out and explore
it in a very local, very authentic way,” he followed.
He also said the trend surrounding event travel –
particularly sports, music and food – is another area of focus for Marriott.
He later added, like many companies for a long time,
Marriott has grossly over-indexed its sponsorship dollars on sports. “A lot of
our members love sports – and a bunch of them couldn’t care less. So, we did
deep data analytics about the preferences and passions of our owners, and we
found they really tend to index in one of three areas – sports, music and food
and beverage. And the ability to unlock opportunities in each of those passion
areas is a big, big opportunity for us.”
They [risks] won’t all pan out and if they do it means we’re not being aggressive enough. We should be celebrating those who have the courage to take that risk, learn from it and apply it going forward.
Tony Capuano
The third trend emerging, Capuano said, is related to
longevity and wellness. “But, I think it’s more a combination of longevity and
wellness, and that means different things to different people.”
He said growth in wellness could be amenity or brand driven.
“I don’t know that they’re mutually exclusive,” he continued. “It could be an
incremental brand opportunity, if we were to find the right opportunity. But
then I look at a brand that’s in the portfolio like Westin, which is all about
great sleep, great fitness, healthy eating options, and I think this idea of
wellness or longevity is already baked into some of our existing brands.”
The conversation naturally turned to Artificial Intelligence
and how Marriott is finding tangible returns in these early days of the quickly
evolving technology.
Capuano referenced how above property level, when they sign
a letter of intent on a contract and then turn a paralegal loose to generate
the first draft – that is being automated. He added that there are more manual
tasks like preparing the room assignments at the Marriott Marquis in New York
and that, too, is being automated. Marriott is now using plain language search
for its Homes and Villas platform.
“It’s early to measure returns, but when I think about AI,
particularly in our business, which at its core I pray will always be a human
connection business, the biggest thing that I’m excited about is the ability of
AI to create capacity for our associates to engage with our guests in a more
personal, substantial way,” Capuano said. “That can become a massive win for
us.”
Lastly, Capuano said he wanted to grow as a leader in 2026
by encouraging more thoughtful, fact-based risk taking.
Again, he referenced the value “Mr. Marriott” placed on
culture and how change can disrupt a workplace.
“Culture is a living, breathing entity that needs to be
nurtured,” Capuano continued, adding that leaders at Marriott can’t be reckless
or cavalier but should feel empowered to take thoughtful, measured risk. “They
won’t all pan out and if they do it means we’re not being aggressive enough. We
should be celebrating those who have the courage to take that risk, learn from it
and apply it going forward.”