BETHESDA, Maryland—Marriott International's boutique luxury hotel line, The Autograph Collection, debuted its new website this week, playing up the “unique experiences” angle and playing down the typical price-and-location based search.
Also absent from the site is the collection’s affiliation with Marriott.
With the exception of the URL, there is no Marriott branding on the Autograph Collection website. Once travelers choose the hotels they want to book, they are then redirected to Marriott’s booking engine for online reservations.
“We believe the independent customer is someone who doesn't necessarily need the endorsement of a big brand,” said Amanda Altree, senior director of marketing for Autograph Collection. “We wanted to create a platform different from the Marriott experience. Different things resonate with different customers. When we’re speaking to the independent customer, we are serving up truly independent hotels.”
Marriott International rewards members still can use and earn points when booking Autograph Collection hotels.
Kelly McCourt, VP of marketing for Sage Hospitality, which manages The Glenn Hotel in Atlanta and Hotel ICON in Houston—both Autograph Collection hotels—said the distinction between the new website and traditional Marriott-branded hotel booking websites helps emphasize the unique aspects of the collection's hotels.
“Autograph is a collection of independent hotels. It is imperative that each unique hotel experience and story be showcased on the new brand website. The traveler profile that the independent hotel appeals to is very different from the typical Marriott hotel guest. We must relate to their unique sensibility through all touch points of our brand,” she said.
“We are very determined to maintain our hotel’s visioning while appropriately marrying Autograph branding. The magic to this relationship is that we have the power of Marriott distribution, while maintaining our independent hotel ethos. It is imperative that we connect with our guests as an independent boutique hotel versus a big chain hotel brand,” McCourt said.
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Not your average website
The new Autograph Collection website breaks free from the traditional hotel booking engine website and places an emphasis on photographs, lifestyle and travel preferences. The consumer can choose the type of vacation they want based on “experiences.” From there, the site offers them suggestions for hotels stays.
For example, a traveler wanting a culinary vacation will be offered the option of 10 different Autograph Collection hotels, all which have a focus on culinary or food and beverage concepts.
The shift away from a traditional booking engine toward a glossy interface is precisely what modern travelers are looking for, Altree said. They want to search for hotels based on unique experiences.
“A lot of work had been done on ‘what is the Autograph collection’ and ‘who is the core customer,’” said Altree, who said the company also had looked at competitors’ websites and analyzed the purchasing behavior of luxury travelers before moving forward with a website designed with multiple experiences in mind.
While consumers still can search for a property the old-fashioned way—by location and date—the new site promotes its hotels by group. Guests can choose from culinary, historic exploration, arts, family, sports and urban, just to name a few.
The new website appeals to the type of travelers for which the collection was created, said McCourt of Sage Hospitality.
“The look and design connects with the independent hotel traveler who researches destinations and unique experiences with a thirst for adventure and ‘going where the locals go,’” McCourt said. “The site aesthetically appeals to these highly individualistic travelers who desire uncommon experiences. The website communicates to the target market on both the individual property and the overall brand elements.”
McCourt's opinions were solicited for the new website, as were the opinions of the other Autograph Collection hotels. As the site progressed, McCourt said she was consulted to “expound on the target audience of independent hotels” to ensure the collection of hotels was presented in the right light.
She categorized The Glenn and Hotel ICON as “urban chic,” meant for travelers looking for a “unique, local and personalized experience that brings all aspects of a global travel to life, be it for a culinary, artistic or design focused guest.”
Getting social
While the absence of Marriott branding on the site is obvious, so are some other moves designed to encourage user interaction.
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Travelers can sign in using their Facebook account, set up personalized settings like preferred background colors, and upload photos of their stay from an Autograph Collection hotel to Flickr. Those photos are recognized by tags and could be used by the hotels on the website. Work has already started on developing a mobile app that would be specific to the Autograph Collection and the new website.
This is the first Marriott brand to incorporate social media directly into its branded website, a move that means the hotels will have to adapt with social media as fast as their consumers.
To do this, the Autograph Collection added various social media connections into the website. When travelers launch www.autograph-hotels.marriott.com, they'll have the option to personalize their view from the drop-down at the top of the page. Here, consumers can link their preferred hotels to their Facebook, TripIt, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, sharing photos and feedback with their personal social community as well as the hotels.
“We’ll have to be closely coordinated with the hotels. We are still a young brand, but we want our guests to tell us what they love about the destination and the hotel,” Altree said. “We know travelers like to tell stories, and we want them to advise us, too. Social sharing is making it easy.”
As for the future of Autograph Collection, the brand is continuously expanding and adding new hotels to its elite portfolio. The Autograph Collection selects independent hotels based on their “originality, character and uncommon details,” according to the website. To date, Autograph Collection portfolio includes more than 24 properties in the United States, Europe and the British Virgin Islands, with projections to double by the end of the year.