Bill Marriott fondly remembers the Thanksgiving dinners at his father’s Fairfield Farm in the Virginia foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Reminiscing about the huge turkey in the tiny oven still draws a laugh from the chairman and CEO of Marriott International. That family farm — “my dad’s favorite place in the world,” says Mr. Marriott — became the name for the company’s first value-focused offering in 1987: Fairfield Inn.

By the turn of the century, though, the economy brand had been passed and even lapped by higher-end rivals like Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express. Leaders at Marriott headquarters in Bethesda, MD had serious discussions about what to do with the struggling economy brand, but “we were never going to give up on it,” says Mr. Marriott. “We knew we had to fix it.”

In 2000, the brand introduced its Gen 3 prototype and added the “& Suites” to Fairfield Inn. That “game changer,” as current brand leader Shruti Buckley calls it, led to a “prune and plant” strategy weeding out owners not willing to climb the ladder into the upper end of the moderate tier. From 2003 to 2006, the brand hovered at approximately 525 properties as more than 100 exited the system.

Now with 675 properties, the upscale select-service brand Fairfield Inn & Suites has introduced what it hopes will be the next game changer, the Gen 4 prototype and décor package called Perspective. Still connected to its heritage with touches like a communal farm table and a “Corner Market,” Fairfield is looking to the future with an innovative new design scheme offering guests and developers form, function and flexibility, while differentiating the brand from the “sea of sameness” within the segment.

Fresh Perspective
Chet Patel, a senior vice president with Baywood Hotels, was so impressed with the new Gen 4 prototype, his company spent two additional months and thousands of dollars altering construction of their Gen 3 Fairfield Inn & Suites. Franchisees first saw the still-in-progress Gen 4 prototype last December at an owners’ meeting and this July the final package was made available to developers.

Baywood’s revamped Fairfield Inn & Suites at Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) opened in August, offering the first glimpse of the brand’s new look. The interior of the property — lobby to guestrooms — is almost completely Gen 4, but the exterior is mostly Gen 3.

The biggest change with the new exterior — not on display at the BWI property — is an asymmetrical design. The entrance isn’t in the center of the building, which allows developers to easily scale down the 110-room prototype to 80 rooms. “All you’re doing is bringing in the ends, or you can increase the floors to expand,” says Buckley. John Bauer, Marriott’s director of design, says simplifying the building makes it more “modern, dynamic, and easier to drop on almost any site.”

A signature tower, curved porte cochere and a mostly glass entrance improve the arrival experience. Specialty lighting at night acts as a “lighthouse, a beacon in the dark” for weary travelers, Bauer adds.

Once inside, the open design and natural light give guests a clear view of the entire space, from a more inviting and angled front desk, to the Corner Market offering snacks and sundries, to the Living Zone with comfortable seating, to the aptly named Connect and Print area.

“That used to be called the business library,” Buckley says. “What does that mean? Does the guest know? It’s got to be functional and intuitive.

“Keep it simple,” she says of the business center and the overall design of Gen 4, which was created with the help of DC-based design firm OPX.

The breakfast area, critical real estate in any select-service hotel, now offers a better arrangement and assortment of seating options with more capacity. The signature green farm table is hard to miss, a nod to the brand’s heritage, but also with a forward-thinking twist: Built-in outlets are conveniently spaced around the table so guests can easily plug in their own media devices. The table is the perfect spot for a large family’s breakfast, equally appropriate for an impromptu business meeting or for a handful of loners looking for some company.

The buffet area, now divided into separate stations for better traffic flow, features large and colorful visual panels overhead. The idea is guests entering the lobby will see the vivid images, not the toasters and microwaves below.

The coffee station serves more than caffeine. It’s away from the breakfast buffet, now a true “hospitality gesture,” Buckley says, repositioned front and center in the lobby and available throughout the day.

‘Smart Rooms’
Gen 4 guestrooms — “smart rooms” Buckley calls them — feature an easy-to-move desk on wheels, an ottoman that can be used for kicking back or as an extra seat, a built-in luggage rack for those who don’t want to unpack, and two large drawers with cutouts for people who want to unpack without the fear of forgetting anything.

The most dramatic change will hit guests when they open the door of a suite. Unlike in Gen 3, and most hotel brands, the door opens into the bedroom area. The living room is beyond the bathroom and on the exterior wall.

“That was our ‘Aha’ moment,” Bauer says. “Guests complained about two things in the bedroom. They want it dark and quiet and near the bathroom. The other research showed guests preferred working by a window to get that connection to the outdoors.”

Buckley’s favorite part of the smart room is just inside the door. “When you walk into your house, what do you do?” she asks. “You shed the day, right? Drop off your bag, keys and jacket.” The signature closet unit offers a quick place to hang a coat and to shed the cell, wallet and keys as soon as you enter.

“The three things folks said they wanted were creative storage solutions whether they like to unpack or are nomadic business travelers, an elevated bath experience and a better work space.”

King rooms now feature walk-in showers, while queen rooms will continue to offer shower-tub combinations. The other added feature now mandated in all rooms is a refrigerator.

The color scheme — tangerine, azul (a teal blue) and accents of lime green and other pops of color — is a direct attempt to contrast the “sea of sameness” in the midscale segment, says Bauer. John Wolf, Marriott’s senior director of public relations, uses a different description of what Fairfield doesn’t want to be: “a beige soul-sucking box.” The phrase comes from old guest feedback that still makes the rounds throughout Marriott offices.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A PHOTO GALLERY WITH MORE IMAGES OF FAIRFIELD'S NEW LOOK.

“The colors are a lot about the back story of Fairfield, its origins from the farm,” Bauer says. “Bright, lively and beautiful colors that have a certain realness to them. Something you’d find at a farmers’ market or on a farm without being too literal.”

For Chet Patel, the decision to slow construction and spend more to adapt his Gen 3 BWI project into a Gen 4 was an easy choice. He was part of the team that helped come up with the new look as one of five owners on the design and construction committee.

“This is a breath of fresh air,” he says of Fairfield’s new Perspective. “This was the right choice for this hotel. This is the future of the brand and it will be a game changer.”

Baywood opened its first Fairfield seven years ago in Germantown, MD and now has five open. The Maryland-based owner and operator has 50 mostly premium-branded and select-service hotels in the Northeast, and Patel says more Fairfields are coming.

Speed to Market
In 2009, Marriott began doing extensive research as it planned to tweak the highly successful Gen 3 prototype, but what executives found was a larger opportunity.

Buckley and her team learned how savvy their guests were and what they really wanted through eight research studies. One was an ethnographic study, which had guests at Fairfield, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express document their stays, from arrival to checkout.

“They didn’t know they were doing it for Marriott,” says Buckley. “It really helped us understand what the moderate tier was not delivering.”

The Gen 4 project got underway in January of 2010 with four goals: improve the arrival experience, make the guestrooms more functional, utilize the same public space as Gen 3 in a more inviting and functional way, and provide a bright and lively décor package.

“We realized we had a real opportunity to take this to the next level,” Buckley says, “not just tweaking, but delivering something that will have flexibility and longevity — to do something that’s not being done right now.”

The challenge for Bauer and Buckley was they had less than a year to be ready for the planned December unveiling. The Fairfield team became the first within Marriott to use its new three-dimensional modeling approach for a comprehensive brand remake.

Partnering with Autodesk, a leader in 3D design software that helped create the movie Avatar, Marriott used a half-virtual, half-real modeling system to create and then refine the new look.

In late spring of this year, Bauer and Buckley led me on a tour through the partially virtual showcase in a large room of the Bethesda headquarters. It wasn’t a model room like Marriott would have used a couple years ago, instead just a few key samples like flooring and the farm table on display mixed with computer-generated renderings that looked lifelike. The guestroom had the actual shed-the-day closet area, but images displayed many of the other casegoods and conveyed the overall design feel.

It was a look inside the new Fairfield Inn & Suites, but completed in far less time, with less money and less complication than a complete build-out. “We had a mandate from our senior leadership three years ago to figure out and demonstrate how long it takes to get a décor package out the door and find a way to get it done faster,” Bauer says. “With Autodesk, we found a good balance between virtual and real.”

What started as tweaks to Gen 3 led to a top-to-bottom transformation that happened in less than 18 months. The final Gen 4 prototype will cost developers approximately $73,000 per key to build, approximately 2% more than Gen 3, says Bauer. The goal was to remain cost neutral, Buckley says, but the minor increase came with the additions of the king-room showers and refrigerators in all rooms.

“It is cost efficient, functional, flexible and scalable,” says Mitch Patel, CEO and president of Vision Hospitality Group, which built its first Fairfield in 2008. He has a Gen 4 set to break ground in West Knoxville, TN early next year and two others planned for urban locations in Chattanooga and Nashville. “I have every confidence in this brand.”

Of the 130 properties currently in the Fairfield pipeline, Buckley says all will have at least some aspect of Gen 4 and Perspective. Three true Gen 4s have already broken ground and are racing to be the first to open next year. Renovation documentation is being finalized now and parts of the Gen 4 look will be incorporated as the portfolio goes through its natural renovation cycle.

Fairfield currently is neck and neck with Courtyard in leading Marriott’s developmental pipeline, but the expectation is Fairfield will soon become the lodging company’s top growth brand. Buckley says the goal is to double the pipeline from its current 130 within the next three to five years, bringing the total portfolio of Fairfields open and under development to more than 1,000.

The growth isn’t just planned in the U.S. and Canada. Marriott recently announced plans to bring Fairfield to India and is investing some of its own capital in a joint venture with SAMHI Hotels, a hotel and investment company based in New Delhi. The partners plan to open 15 Fairfield by Marriott hotels there by 2015. A completely different prototype was developed to answer the growing middle class’ hunger for moderate-tier hotels. The 155-room prototype features a three-meal restaurant and more meeting space.

Similar plans are underway for a new prototype to debut in Brazil. The brand that stalled in this country less than 10 years ago is now one of the first Marriott is taking to India and Brazil. The almost forgotten Fairfield is now poised to become Marriott’s fastest vehicle for growth.

Marriott Ranch and the Inn at Fairfield Farm, the places where it all began in Hume, VA, are still owned by the company. Employees gather there every summer for a family picnic and the Marriott family spends part of the summer there.

A framed photo of J. Willard Marriott Sr. and his favorite horse in his “favorite place” hangs in the lobby of every Fairfield Inn & Suites. The past hasn’t been forgotten, but the future is now the focus.

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