Lifestyle: Travel – The Johannesburg Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch

As one of the industries worst affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the hospitality industry is starting to pick itself up. Although it will take a long time for the industry to see maximum returns, with different regulations and red tape still affecting global travel and operations, the team at the Johannesburg Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch is optimistic and happy to see guests coming back in numbers.

The hotel has experienced its fair share of the pandemic. ‘We opened the hotel at the beginning of March in 2020 and three weeks down the line we were hit with lockdown and had to close. This did not only disrupt our operations but also our staff and negatively affected our plans in a great way. We are slowly starting to get into full operations, and we are excited to see our clients back,’ says Laurie Meiring, Assistant Director of Marketing, Melrose Arch Cluster.

This hotel offers you the best of both worlds. This is the first purpose-built Marriott Hotel and the first Marriott Executive Apartments in South Africa delivering sophisticated extended-stay apartments with access to home and office functionality for clients, and it is suitable for both the leisure and business traveller. The Marriott Executive Apartments are situated on the upper floors of the building and feature 84 fully sized and equipped apartments comprising one-, two- and three-bedroom units for travellers seeking a longer stay.

Once inside the hotel, the interior design changes your focus from a busy city to a more private, welcoming and intimate space complemented by attention-to-detail service. The personalised service ensures a seamless and sophisticated experience while local textures and flavours add to the overall ambience.

The Johannesburg Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch is the first Marriott hotel in South Africa to showcase the brand’s new design touchpoints. It features 306 guest rooms, including 10 junior suites. The spacious rooms are thoughtfully designed with a balance of tailored utility and contemporary style for the traveller who believes that form is just as important as function. Local accents add a sense of place to the sleek aesthetic, while open workspaces allow flexible connectivity.

The hotel is home to spaces that spark brilliance and seamlessly blend work and play with state-of-the-art business facilities such as the Greatroom − a contemporary space in the hotel lobby designed for socialising, relaxing and working. Guests can enjoy an elevated experience through mobile guest services delivered with the warm and professional service for which the brand is globally renowned.

Marriott Bonvoy Elite loyalty members and Club paying members have access to the M Club Lounge that provides complimentary breakfasts, evening drinks, hors d’oeuvres and premium beverages. The M Club Lounge also offers the brand’s signature Mind Menu, a collection of delicious snacks and beverages infused with active ingredients to enhance the mind and body. Accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the M Club Lounge offers free wi-fi, printing and power supplies to ensure uninterrupted productivity for business travellers.

The hotel features two dining venues, Archer Bar and Eatery – a charismatic social space, part bar and part coffee hangout, serving local craft beers, specialty coffee and creative mixology − and Keystone Bistro − a stylish restaurant serving international cuisine with a South African flair. This is a popular space for lunch meetings or catch-up sessions.

The hotel has seven meeting rooms, a ballroom and a pre-function space including the Green Room for hosting VIP dignitaries and speakers. The meeting rooms and ballroom offer clients all the equipment and resources they need to host a successful formal or social event. With a maximum of 250 guests for the ballroom, events such as conferences, company year-end functions and other celebrations can easily be hosted here. In addition, the ballroom has its own entrance from the parking lot. Other facilities include a 24-hour fitness centre, outdoor heated swimming pool and pool bar to complete the ‘work and play’ theme of the hotel.

It is not surprising that Marriott International chose the premium Melrose Arch precinct to build this first-of-its-kind hotel. Its accessibility to other business and entertainment areas around Johannesburg ensures limitless activities that you can enjoy during your stay. Other tourist attractions in the province and other neighbouring provinces are also easily accessible.

If you are looking for a place that blends lifestyle and work, be it for a shorter or longer stay, the Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch offers superior services. It is family-friendly and suitable for both teams and individuals.

Author
Mpho Netshivhambe