Dive Brief:

• EV Connect was selected by Marriott International as the hotel chain’s preferred electric vehicle charging provider, the company announced Tuesday. 
• Through the strategic partnership, EV Connect will provide approximately 6,000 participating Marriott properties across the U.S. and Canada with their platform of resources to install and manage EV charging stations. 
• The partnership, set to significantly expand Marriott’s EV charging network, comes as hotel guests increasingly demand access to EV charging, and Marriott joins other major hotel companies that are ramping up installation of the amenity. 

Dive Insight:

Marriott SVP of Global Operations Andrew Bodziak said the partnership will help “further the company's sustainability goals,” set in July in its 2023 Serve 360 Report. Those goals include expanding its EV charging network, which totaled 5,500 chargers across its hotel properties worldwide at the end of 2022.

Through the newly formed partnership, EV Connect will service some 6,000 Marriott hotels,  though the exact number of chargers to be deployed is still undetermined. 

“The agreement ensures that Marriott properties have the tools and resources to evaluate their charging needs, to design charging packages that meet a property's particular needs, and that procurement, deployment and management all serve the unique business needs of the property,” an EV Connect spokesperson told Hotel Dive. “How many and what types of chargers or connectors are deployed is entirely up to the property management or ownership team.” 

Beyond deployment, EV Connect will handle the operational maintenance of those units via its parts and labor warranty plan, Shield. The platform gives Marriott owners access to charging station repair, software support and fieldwork labor, including from resolving minor technical issues to parts sourcing and replacement services. 

The partnership, Bodziak said, will also help Marriott meet “rapidly evolving consumer demand” for EV charging. 

Accessibility to EV charging is starting to influence guests’ hotel selection and satisfaction, according to J.D. Power’s 2023 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark study. 

For Hilton, the EV charging search filter has had the fastest volume growth among all search filters on its website this year. This led the company to form a partnership with Tesla that will bring up to 20,000 chargers to 2,000 Hilton hotels across North America starting next year. 

Both Hilton and Marriott have previously partnered with EV charging provider LNG Electric, which in May announced a rollout of charging stations to more than 13,000 hotels across the country.