Speaker 1: A hotel that's created like building blocks. I'm Rich Dmiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech Daily. This was a really
Speaker 1: fun story to do. Marriott is building a hotel in Hawthorne, California,
Speaker 1: which is just down the street from SpaceX, using a
Speaker 1: really unique technique modular. Now. I'm sure we've all seen
Speaker 1: those modular homes going down the highway, but this is different.
Speaker 1: This is sort of new for the hotel industry. So
Speaker 1: we saw a brand new courtyard slash town Place Suites hotel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're building like two hotels into one. Nowadays, this has
Speaker 1: over three hundred and fifty rooms. But here's the crazy part.
Speaker 1: The rooms are actually being built all the way out
Speaker 1: in Boise, Idaho. So they ship them to LA via
Speaker 1: tractor trailer, so on big trucks, which is crazy to
Speaker 1: imagine eighteen wheeler. It's easier to make this thing in
Speaker 1: Boise and ship it to LA than just to build
Speaker 1: it there. So what happens is once all these rooms,
Speaker 1: which literally looks like blocks, once they arrive on site,
Speaker 1: crews stack them on top of each other.
Speaker 2: Inside the room is everything you need.
Speaker 1: So there's like the TV, all the furniture, the bed,
Speaker 1: it's all placed inside.
Speaker 2: It's all finished.
Speaker 1: All the crews have to do is unwrap everything, place
Speaker 1: it where it goes, and then of course dust it all.
Speaker 1: Then crews just connect all the rooms to each other,
Speaker 1: so they connect the water, they connect the electricity, and yes,
Speaker 1: if you're wondering, since this is in LA, there are
Speaker 1: seismic rods for earthquakes, so these things are stabilized. And
Speaker 1: the company that builds them say, well, of course they're
Speaker 1: going to say this, but they say that the rooms
Speaker 1: actually have a higher quality because they're made assembly line
Speaker 1: style than if you build these things on site, because
Speaker 1: they can really track the quality from start to finish.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of the same people building these
Speaker 1: hotel rooms over and over versus people that you hire locally. Now,
Speaker 1: the folks on site didn't want to give me an
Speaker 1: exact number, but they told me that each one of
Speaker 1: these modular units runs about ninety thousand dollars. Of course,
Speaker 1: that information is proprietary and it changes for every project.
Speaker 1: But I just kind of wanted to give you an
Speaker 1: idea of just how expensive these things are. So what's
Speaker 1: the benefit to all this, Well, mainly time, that's the
Speaker 1: number one benefit. They can build a hotel like this
Speaker 1: in one year versus double that time conventional style. So
Speaker 1: you're talking the faster that this hotel gets open, the
Speaker 1: faster they can start accepting guests, and that means the
Speaker 1: investors get a return on their money much faster. They
Speaker 1: also say the quality is the second thing that's really good,
Speaker 1: because it's you know, there's much more quality control when
Speaker 1: you're building these things in a factory versus on site.
Speaker 2: And they also say there's less environmental waste.
Speaker 1: Now. Mariott did fifty modular hotels in twenty seventeen, which
Speaker 1: is a lot for them, and they're doing six projects
Speaker 1: as we speak, but they're looking to do many more.
Speaker 1: In fact, the day that we were on site at
Speaker 1: this project, they had a whole bunch of people out there, builders, investors,
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff showing off just how cool this
Speaker 1: project is and just how this can benefit them for
Speaker 1: whatever hotels they're working on.
Speaker 2: It's a different way of doing things. I think the.
Speaker 1: Guests are going to notice that these rooms are quieter because.
Speaker 2: They all have double walls.
Speaker 1: Because when you put two of these modulars together, well,
Speaker 1: guess what, there's walls on each side.
Speaker 2: So they go together, which is really nice.
Speaker 1: And if you're wondering about the size, they are the
Speaker 1: standard hotel room size of about twelve to fourteen feet across. Now,
Speaker 1: if you want to see this room go from unfinished
Speaker 1: to finished, it's quite the site to see with all
Speaker 1: the stuff stacked in the middle. Just go to my
Speaker 1: website richon tech dot tv. You'll find a link to
Speaker 1: the video on my Facebook page. Thanks so much for listening.
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Speaker 2: I'm Rich Demiro. Talk to you real soon.