Marriott has been busy launching a new brand and before you turn away and start chatting amongst yourself about bears defecating in the woods, this one speaks more to The Ways Of The Future than one might otherwise think.
The Outdoor Collection by Marriott Bonvoy is a “curated portfolio”, featuring within it two brands: Postcard Cabins and Trailborn Hotels. This brand and two brand spawn will then be gathered on a fourth brand, a platform: Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors .
The platform brings together 400+ hotels, 50,000+ Homes & Villas, Marriott Bonvoy Tours & Activities, and more, “into a singular digital platform that enables travellers to discover and book their next travel destination based on seven distinct outdoor passions: ski, camp and hike, bike, paddle, fish, dive, and surf”.
“We built Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors to help people, whether that’s cresting a mountain trail, catching the perfect wave, or simply finding quiet under the stars,” said Peggy Roe, EVP & chief customer officer, Marriott International.
So if you know someone who deals with that there internet at Marriott, don’t expect to hear from them any time soon.
Marriott bought Postcard Cabins, formerly Getaway Outposts, at the end of 2024, at the same time signing an agreement with Trailborn Hotels (which was launched in 2024 and offers stays at four US hotels, with two more sites in development).
The current Postcard Cabins portfolio, comprised of 29 properties with over 1,200 cabins across the US, will operate under long-term agreements with Marriott. “What started a decade ago with a small group of believers in the power of spending free time in nature, has grown into a national movement, which we expect will only gather steam with Marriott’s expansive reach,” said Jon Staff, founder & CEO, Postcard Cabins.
Marriott added: “With a focus on upscale and upper-upscale accommodations in nature-forward destinations, Marriott’s anticipated outdoor-focused collection is expected to be conversion friendly, providing exciting opportunities for franchisees, owners and developers looking to affiliate their outdoor-focused properties with Marriott’s powerful portfolio.”
So if you have a hotel where you could ride a bike – the mind leaps to the extensive array of bike lanes now covering Paris – give them a call.
Even ones Brexity, Mail-reading neighbours are aware of the value of forest bathing, so we won’t dwell on that, or the image of “a small group of believers” out there in nature (axes not mentioned). What serves to make this interesting is a platform which offers the ability to search by trip purpose. It doesn’t feel like much, but it is an acknowledgement that there are people out there, people who leave the house for reasons other than attending conferences.
You may not know them, but they do exist and they surely do spend money. And, increasingly, Marriott and everyone else will have noticed that they are going to start handing over their search to agentic AI.
Earlier this year we looked at OpenAI’s Operator product, which was working with Priceline and Booking and was launched before reportedly being shut down again a few months later. Instead, OpenAI announced this week that it was getting into porn, echoing the classic bubble model we saw with the internet: sooner or later it distills down into shopping, porn and disinformation.
The good news is that AI was already there with disinformation, now it has to perfect the shopping. And while Operator might be quiet for now, it, or one of its chums, will be back. And the need to monetise will be pressing, so ensuring that your hotel pops up first when someone searches for hunting, shooting or fishing is likely to come with a toll.
Marriott has a long pedigree of trying to fight back against the power of the OTAs, or whoever would ape them, buying Starwood for reach and deploying its loyalty programme where possible. This trip to the woods is no different. It means to be the first and last stop in any travel search, whatever the model.
