Marriott And IKEA Joining In European Budget Hotel Chain [VIDEO]

Marriott on Tuesday unveiled its designs for Moxy, a European budget hotel brand it is developing with a subsidiary of Inter IKEA Group, the parent company of the IKEA furniture stores.

Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) said it will debut the venture (www.moxyhotels.com) at the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin Tuesday.

The privately held Swedish firm Inter IKEA is investing about $500 million in the partnership for around 50 budget hotels in Europe in the next five years, Marriott executives told The Wall Street Journal.

The hotels won't use IKEA furniture or its designers, but Inter IKEA devised what it calls novel construction techniques to trim construction costs. Many rooms will be prefabricated and then assembled like IKEA furniture, a modular type of construction that is new for Marriott. The first hotel, in Milan, is supposed to open in early 2014.

The hotels will range from 150 to 300 rooms each. The rooms, with a price point around €60 ($78), were designed by Nordic Hospitality A/S, which will operate the hotels. Marriott is the franchiser, contributing its database of customers and reservations and purchasing systems, and would own the brand. Nordic Hospitality, the first franchisee to operate the brand, already manages several Marriott brand hotels in Scandinavia.

“Designed to capture the rapidly emerging millennial traveler,” Marriott said, “the new brand combines contemporary stylish design, approachable service and, most importantly, an affordable price.”

Marriott says it plans 150 franchised Moxy Hotels in Europe over the next decade, aiming for locations in Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Moxy's promotional video, with a Eurodisco-style soundtrack and uniformly youthful patrons populating the drawings, can be seen here.