Homes & Villas by Marriott
Marriott’s foray into home-sharing
Team
The Customer Experience Innovation team at Marriott International researches and launches emerging technologies and services to support the company’s business initiatives through a human-centered design lens. As a part of this team, I had the opportunity to help determine the experience for exploratory ventures that the company aimed to invest in, including that of their home-rental service.
Tasks & Outputs
Responsive Web Design
Illustration
Branding
Ad Design
Social Media Marketing
Email Design
User Research
Competitor Analysis
User Testing
Interactive Prototypes
Co-creation workshops
Branded merchandise
Tools & Resources
Sketch
Invision
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe AfterEffects
Jira
Pilot Program
In 2018, the team hosted an incubator challenge for over 100 startups from around the world to find potential opportunities for new experiences in the travel industry. Hostmaker, a home rental company from London, was a finalist of this incubator that the CX Innovation team partnered with to develop a pilot homesharing experience through Marriott. Tribute Portfolio Homes (named after one of Marriott’s premium hotel brands, Tribute Portfolio Collection) was a 6-month pilot home-rental experience launched by the CX Innovation team in a select number of European cities. As a designer on this team, I contributed to the research and design for this pilot program and its digital and physical experiences and services. The impact of this program would then define how Marriott would proceed with this potential extension of their services.
Expansion and Final Launch
The Tribute Portfolio Homes pilot program provided us with the opportunity to gather feedback from customers, build valuable partnerships, and learn important business lessons that then allowed us to successfully plan for and launch the MVP site for Homes and Villas by Marriott International. By testing out the experience on a smaller scale, we were able fail fast, iterate, and pivot as needed so as to optimize the final product and service offerings.
Key Features:
Home options are curated based on Marriott standards and are professionally-managed, to limit pain points for both hosts and guests (security, safety, cleanliness, etc.)
Ability search for homes based on collections and destinations
Ability to sort, filter, and view homes on a map
Loyalty points may be earned/used on rental stays
Highlight value props and stand-out amenities of each home
Focus on both digital and physical customer experience elements (communication with customer support, branded tote bags, welcome box, welcome cards)
