Rent The Runway partners up with W Hotels so you don't have to pack clothes
Take the toiletries. Leave the blouse... Marriott's W Hotels is partnering with subscription clothing pioneer Rent The Runway to deliver vacay gear straight to your suite. For an extra $69, you get 4 Rent The Runway garments for the duration of your stay. And it's available at 4 W hotels: Aspen, South Beach, DC, Hollywood. Here's how "don't BYO clothes" goes down:
- Ready-to-strut: A RTR romper is waiting for you on the Queen bed in room 207 after check-in. Wear it whenever, and leave it on the mattress when you check-out.
- Location-appropriate: W's Aspen hotel offers sweaters for Après, while W's South Beach spot has cover-ups for poolside.
- Size-insured: Medium too small? Rent The Runway stocked the Ws with "mini-closets" full of size options as backups (please add the elusive "marge").
2019 didn't fit right... Good timing on the partnership, because this year challenged Rent The Runway. First, retailers Urban Outfitters, Banana Republic, and Bloomingdale's launched their own subscription clothing services. Then, Rent The Runway's logistics systems broke down, causing a freeze in the service and no new subscribers for weeks.
Partnerships are hacky marketing — and that’s smart... Facing all that fresh competition, Rent The Runway has pursued partnerships (aggressively): They've got drop-off boxes for your worn dresses at Nordstroms and WeWorks. Now add the W to the partnership mix. Partnerships are a hustling way to snag new customers:
- TV ad = Spend big on televised ads to show potential customers your product.
- Partnership = Spend less to cross-pollinate your user base with another company's.
- W Hotels customers get an email about Rent The Runway's new hotel-outfit offering. Rent The Runway customers get an email about W Hotels. Symbiosis for the win.