CitizenM built its reputation by doing everything traditional hotels don’t: digitizing the check-in experience, offering tiny rooms, and hiring staff based on personality rather than past training.

Now that Marriott is acquiring CitizenM for $355 million, industry watchers are asking whether the corporate giant will strip away what made it special.

CEO Lennert De Jong – employee number one when CitizenM launched in 2008 – isn’t worried. In his first public interview since the acquisition announcement, he argued at Skift’s Data and AI Summit that Marriott gets the brand’s mission: He thinks Marriott is just as obsessed with killing the front desk as he is.

Watch the interview here:

https://youtu.be/bx-LY5EJXwc?si=kE2uwu3jOSBO_UlZ Tech Innovation

De Jong said that when CitizenM’s leadership fielded acquisition offers from various potential owners, they considered Marriott’s