JW Marriott Reston Station opened in September 2025. |
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D. C. How is Reston able to support a luxury hotel and why did ownership choose to affiliate with the Marriott brand? Wright: Who has been the luxury offering prior to us? The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. There was great opportunity closer to the airport and there was room for another luxury property to come into this market outside the Ritz-Carlton name. We are for people who don’ t really want to go into D. C., but want a true luxury product. The other component is Reston Station and Town Center and potential in retail and restaurants and with customers and guests that have a healthy |
income per household. JW Marriott is a strong brand. If you break it down, it’ s the BMW of the hotel industry. Marriott’ s Bulgari brand would be a Bugatti, while St. Regis and Ritz- Carlton are the Rolls-Royce.
HOTELS: Opening a new hotel is a strenuous process. What stood out? Wright: I did my due diligence prior to opening and became good friends with the GMs at the hotels considered our competitors. My goal was to ensure that we’ re not here to really be an enemy to anyone, but to really lift everyone up. At opening, we had 175 jobs available and had more than
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1,800 applicants. We had the ability to be selective with our team as opposed to just doing a mass hiring. We’ ve been able to mirror the level of service with the aesthetics of the hotel. We are a luxury brand and people really want to be able to take pride in where they work.
HOTELS: The property has a healthy mix of transient and group business and demand generators that include the myriad tech companies in the vicinity. How has that all dictated the guest composite? Wright: Midweek, our guests are business travelers, people doing business with Google,
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with Rolls-Royce North America, all the different companies that are in this immediate and walkingdistance area. We also have quite a few business travelers that are going into the city, but don’ t want to deal with the hustle and bustle of it during their stay. It’ s weekends where it’ s families and we’ ve already had several weddings and other large events that require 100- plus room blocks.
HOTELS: Let’ s talk about the design of the hotel. Ample meeting space, F & B— talk us through the build out. Wright: The architectural firm was Nunzio Marc DeSantis
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Mar / Apr 2026 hotelsmag. com 59 |