Since I'm a Marriott Rewards member and stayed at The Waikiki Edition back in June, I'm going to add my thoughts about the controversy and lawsuits and counter suits that erupted earlier this month. First of all the reason I stayed at The Waikiki Edition was because of a USA Today article published in May that reported the owners of the hotel, M Waikiki LLC, was suing Marriott and Ian Schrager, the creative partner of the hotel brand. The 27-page lawsuit indicated that they didn't do enough to make the hotel success. The hotel owner indicated they lost $3.9 million in three months of operation.
This was a bad omen and I wanted to stay at the hotel. But if I was going to book a stay I was going to book one while earning Marriott Rewards points. So I called the hotel and their reservations desk gave me a kama'aina rate (local resident rate) of $199 for my Friday night stay. It's probably a rate the owner's were not keen on knowing that the normal rate for a standard room was $379 per night.
I wrote an entire series of posts about The Waikiki Edition praising the property overall. But now and likely indefinitely Aqua Hotels is the new management company for the hotel renamed as The Modern Honolulu after the owners took control of the the hotel from Marriott over the cover of night. Marriott sued and a New York judge returned management to Marriott. But that wasn't it. The owners filed for bankruptcy essentially overriding the judgment and keeping Marriott out.
The huge publicity was due to the fact that The Waikiki Edition was the first hotel in the Edition brand, the newest among Marriott's family of hotels, and the method of the takeover. The only other location in the Edition brand is in Istanbul, Turkey. The brand was Marriott's chance to finally tap into the boutique hotel market that catered to media types that have been attracted to competing brands such as the W Hotel chain.
I have to admit it that if the hotel remained The Waikiki Edition I would have definitely returned for another stay. I live in Hawaii but the one-night staycation in June was an excellent one and I was looking forward to repeating the experience again.
Though I am disappointed that The Waikiki Edition is no longer part of the Marriott chain of hotels, I am not surprised. I have been a Marriott Rewards member since 1995 and there are other hotels at which I've stayed and would have stayed at again should they have remained part of one of the company's brands. So the odds that that hotels change name or brands seems high or it's just by coincidence. Most of these changes are made amicably and with very little publicity in the mass media.
Here are some properties that are no longer part of the Marriott chain, the year when I had stayed at the hotel and the present operator* of the hotel:
Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel (1999) - Now is the Park 55 Wyndham
Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel (2010) - Now operated by Preferred Hotels simply as the Chancery Court London
Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel (2003) - Now (ironically) operated by Aqua Hotels as the Ilikai Hotel
Courtyard by Marriott at Disney World (2002) - Now is the Holiday Inn in the Walt Disney World Resort
The lawsuit and counter suit will take a while to settle. It's probably unlikely that The Modern Honolulu would revert back to The Waikiki Edition. Probably Marriott's best bet is seeking a pay day in a damage to their brand. The owner's of the hotel would have to come out of bankruptcy sometime or sell the property.
*These are the present operators of the hotels but the history of these properties may have included other companies managing the hotel before them and after it was part of one of the Marriott hotel brands.
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