Arthur Frommer: Marriott’s Low-Cost Moxy Chain May Bring…

That remarkable lodging, priced at a half to a third of the going rate in New York City, belongs to the giant Marriott company and bears the impudent name Moxy.

I should have mentioned that the New York City Moxy is only the latest in a planned construction by Marriott of at least 100 Moxy hotels around the world, of which 20 are already in existence, most of them charging a lower £80 to £100 for a double room.

Among them are Moxys in Washington, D.C.; Boston; Los Angeles; Nashville; Berlin; London; Amsterdam; Tokyo; and elsewhere. The Moxys achieve that low rate by limiting the size of rooms to 183 square feet, far below the standard industry designs.

The Marriott people sternly deny that low cost is the chief attraction of a Moxy. They argue that these unusual new hotels are designed primarily for use by millennials (people born in the 1980s and 1990s), who are attracted by a party atmosphere created by a round-the-clock bar in the lobby, restaurants, and snack bars on the roof, and other convivial attractions.