Rebranded Viv in Anaheim, Vea in Newport Beach bolster Marriott’s local presence

HOSPITALITY: Anaheim’s Viv, Vea in Newport Beach rebrand

Orange County is increasingly serving as a hotbed for new luxury offerings by Marriott International Inc., with several four-diamond and other high-end hotel properties opened in the region since 2020, adding nearly 2,000 rooms to its local portfolio.

This year, Marriott (Nasdaq: MAR) added two upscale hotels to its local portfolio by way of renovation, revamping the former Radisson Blu Anaheim and the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa into new concepts. In September, the Radisson Blu became the

326-room Viv Hotel, Anaheim, while June saw the Newport Beach Marriott become the 400-room Vea Newport Beach, a Marriott Resort & Spa.

The new additions come as the Marriott is seeing heavy demand from returning vacation travelers and those combining leisure travel with business; the nearly $50 billion valued Bethesda, Md.-based hotel operator, owner and franchiser sees Orange County as a key hub for those growing customer segments.

“Here in Orange County, there are so many rich amenities, whether we’re talking about the parks experience, about the beach experience or the commerce experience,” Julius Robinson, Marriott chief sales and marketing officer, told the Business Journal during a recent trip to Anaheim.

“We love the diversity that Orange County brings, and because of that, we have a huge diversity of hotel products in the market.”

Anaheim Stars

Marriott opened the Viv Hotel under its Tribute portfolio of independent boutique properties; the other Orange County hotel under the Tribute umbrella is the Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa.

The hotel opened in 2020 as the Radisson Blu Anaheim; it’s the largest hotel in the city on the east side of the 5 freeway. Overlooking the freeway, the Viv is about a mile from Disneyland Resort and offers a rooftop view of the resort and its nightly fireworks show.

The rebrand—emphasizing a casual environment and high level of service, and catering to crowds who like to visit Disneyland but might not want to stay on-site—brought a repositioning of dining options, with Valencia’s at the Viv and The Top of the V featuring Mexican and Spanish cuisine, respectively, as well as system and technology upgrades.

Prior to the rebranding, the 12-story Anaheim hotel last year received a AAA Four Diamond property designation, marking Marriott’s third such property in the city. The 466-room JW Marriott and the 618room Westin Anaheim Resort—opened in 2020 and 2021, respectively—also hold that designation.

Those three Marriott properties are the only AAA Four Diamond properties in the city not on Walt Disney-owned grounds.

Newport Center Revamp

Marriott’s Newport Beach rebrand was a more extensive effort, with Vea Newport Beach undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation from its owners, a venture headed by locally-based Eagle Four Partners, which paid $216 million for the Newport Center property in 2020.

The project includes new coastal-inspired guest rooms with two suite categories, three restaurant and bar concepts, a spa and fitness center, several indoor and outdoor event spaces, and a resort-style pool.

Room rates at Vea start in the mid-$400s, while rates at the Viv start around the mid $200s.

Recovery Rates

Marriott designed its latest offerings for a post-pandemic consumer.

“The customer is much more discerning around spending their dollar,” Robinson said. “With new amenities and designs, visitors may be more willing to pay for an upgraded experience.

“We’re dialing up different levels of service and amenities because we know that’s what customers are looking for,” he said. “Everyone’s testing luxury a bit differently.”

CBRE Hotels Research reported that U.S. properties and employees are steadily returning to pre-pandemic levels, with the industry at 95% of 2019 employment rates as of August with 16 million workers, and hotel wages up 8.4% year-over-year. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the luxury segment was 88% of pre-pandemic figures.

In Orange County, average occupancy rates were around 77% in the four weeks ending Oct. 1, according to STR. That’s slightly off from the 80% seen in 2019. RevPAR, meanwhile, is up 24% to $160 during that same time frame.

Independent Hotels

Marriott now counts 12 local properties, including eight Marriott brands, two Tribute portfolio hotels and two more, Newport Beach’s Lido House and San Juan Capistrano’s Inn at the Mission, within the company’s Autograph collection of boutique properties.

The hotel company has been involved in its Autograph and Tribute collection business for almost a decade now, according to Robinson. He reports that these hotels have been “growing exponentially over the past [several] years.”

The Inn at the Mission opened in September 2020 with 125 rooms.

Costa Mesa’s Avenue of the Arts property is next to the Segerstrom Center of the Arts and the newly opened Orange County Museum of Art, and a short walk from the South Coast Plaza luxury shopping center.

Marriott refers to these hotel properties as “soft brands.”

“It brings new customers—customers who wouldn’t typically stay in a branded hotel—into the Marriott portfolio,” Robinson said. “Once they come into one of these boutique, autograph style, or tribute hotels, they’re more apt to learning about the new Westin or the new JW [Marriott] in Anaheim. But it also keeps our core customer in our ecosystem.

“We’re very happy with our portfolio of brands here,” Robinson said. “We’re longterm partners with OC and we’re committed to being here for quite some time.”

Trending

Multigenerational travel has jetted to the top of hotel trends with families and large groups traveling together more than before the pandemic and causing “an incredible influx in group business,” according to Robinson.

Another trend is the combination of leisure with business trips, dubbed as “bleisure.” More than half of U.S. travelers were combining these purposes in one trip as of May, according to Visit Anaheim, the area’s destination marketing organization.

“We build hotels like the Westin that are beautiful properties and have quite a bit of meeting space but also a significant leisure component to it, so that we’re able to handle the best of both worlds,” Robinson said.