US focus for Marriott’s lifestyle brand

Marriott’s lifestyle brand, AC Hotels by Marriott, has outlined plans for 30 new hotels in the next three years with a focus on the US, Caribbean and Latin America.

Vice president Dan Vinh said most of the hotels would be new-builds while others would be renovations and rebrands of existing hotels.

The group was formed when Spanish AC Hotels signed a joint venture with Marriott International in 2011.

With a distinctly European style, the brand’s ethos is to ‘celebrate classic modern design inspired by the urban locale and the brand’s Spanish roots’.

Following the 2011 tie-up, AC Hotels by Marriott expanded its presence beyond Spain into France, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Denmark and the US.

Hotels are mainly in urban locations and are primarily aimed at business travelers.

Next month’s openings include two hotels in Rio de Janeiro – Porto Maravilha and Barra de Tijuca – in time for the Olympic Games.

Later this year AC Hotels are due to open in Panama City, Atlanta, Boston, San Jose, and Santiago.

Scheduled for 2017 are openings in Des Moines and Minneapolis.

Last month, AC Hotels opened a 159-room hotel in Phoenix. The hotel (pictured above) is on the Tempe Town Lake development. It has a a rooftop pool, a fitness center with floor-to-ceiling windows, and an AC Lounge, with craft beers, cocktails, and tapas bites.

AC Hotels by Marriott opened its first US location in November 2014 in the iconic Cotton Exchange Building in New Orleans.

This was followed by Kansas City in March 2015, Washington D.C. at National Harbor in April 2015, Chicago in May 2015, and Miami Beach in June 2015.