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At a time when big hotel companies like Marriott and Hilton are growing increasingly by appealing to owners of existing hotels to take on new brand alliances, executives at these brands must do what they can to sweeten the deal.

On Monday morning, Marriott’s executive team indicated that they were going to launch a major cost-cutting initiative to appeal to hotel owners and possibly make them more attractive to Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel company. Overall cost reductions could run as much as $90 million across the organization.

The chatter on the brand’s earnings call may lead some to believe that savings and efficiency initiatives may be targeting Marriott at the corporate level. If you think it doesn’t affect you, guess again.

“We’re seeing efficiencies and savings that we think will be a clear benefit to owners,” Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said during an earnings call Monday. “We are looking at every aspect of our engagement with them, and we expect to identify some tangible savings opportunities for them in the near future.”

While Capuano and Lynne Oberg, Marriott’s chief financial officer and executive vice president of development, declined to provide much in the way of specifics when they presided over the investor call, it’s easy to assume the company will continue to find ways to do more with less. . At the property level.

Much of the industry has moved away from full-service restaurants or even heavily staffed breakfast bars at select-service hotels in favor of a grab-and-go market in the lobby. It is logical to think that further adjustments around food and beverage offerings may be in the works, as hotel restaurants often operate at a financial loss.

There may also be minor adjustments around what are mandatory brand standards. The Marriott leadership team even hinted several years ago that alarm clocks on guest room nightstands are not as useful these days as many people bring their own smartphones.

While we wait to hear official cost-cutting details from Marriott leadership, one can’t help but think that this could help Marriott owners at a time when its competitors are grappling with similar conversations.

Late last month Hyatt’s leadership team noted that they had lost some hotels to competitors because the owners felt it was too expensive to maintain brand standards. Meanwhile, Hilton’s new Spark brand is growing rapidly thanks to hotel owners who find it easier and more affordable to convert to that brand’s needs rather than stay within their existing brand network.

But as for Spark, Marriott’s plan to introduce the Mexico-based City Express brand it acquired last year to the U.S. is a sign that the hotel giant sees an opportunity to expand its presence in the increasingly affordable hotel sector.

“Our progress in the midscale space worldwide has been outstanding, and we look forward to meaningfully growing our presence in this high-growth segment of the market,” Capuano said.

Bonvoy build-up

We’re humble at TPG, so we won’t say we were behind this. But it was interesting to note after several quarters With “Is Hilton Honors about to leave Marriott Bonvoy behind?”-esque headlines, Marriott leaders spent a good deal of time on the investor call reminding people how and why the Marriott Bonvoy program is big.