Courtyard Marriott
Need-state & Daypart Analysis / Menu Strategy / Recipe & Product Development
Reimagining The Bistro for a new breed of business traveler.
With over 800 hotels in North America, Courtyard by Marriott is built specifically for business travelers. As part of its commitment to innovate its guest experience to meet the fundamental generational shifts in how people work, live, and travel, Courtyard partnered with TCE to reinvent its in-house, fast-casual restaurant The Bistro. But with Courtyard’s limited operational capabilities and discerning new customer, we would have to thread the needle to maximize guest desirability while minimizing complexity and overall investment for franchisees.
The Opportunity.
Our Activities
We knew that to win our new guest we would need to seamlessly cater to dramatically different AM to PM needs by establishing an offering where business travelers could easily fuel-up for the morning grind and unwind with a craft cocktail at the end of the day, all in the same place. Through our deep understanding of customer need states informed by Courtyard’s distinct guest profile, aligned with a review of marketplace trends and Courtyard’s unique cooking platform constraints, we created an all-day cafe menu anchored on classic American favorites elevated for today’s palates.
Our results.
TCE’s menu set out to be cohesive across all day-parts meeting a business traveler’s core need states. We were able to incorporate items that satisfy the guest without burdening the menu with other items that might otherwise add noise to the menu and complexity to the operations. We elevated the plateware with the intent to encourage guests to linger in the lounge with a cocktail and laptop or share socially with colleagues and companions.
Following successful market tests in select units throughout varying geographic regions, the new Bistro concept was rolled out in record time across all 800+ North American properties in March 2018 with sales and guest satisfaction surveys trending upwards.