NEW YORK — The allure of Marriott hotels, a traveling baseball writer once said, was their comforting familiarity. Work on the road, especially in a sport with no clock, extended beyond his control, but his bed for the night would feel the same as all the others among the 150 nights he’d regularly log away from home.
One notable exception arose in the shadow of Manhattan’s Flatiron Building on Thursday, as Marriott’s Courtyard brand erected a 4D virtual reality dome between the landmark’s triangular tip and Broadway. Sure, the bed inside was the same stock but its frame resided under a curved screen that mimicked the action of a football game from on the gridiron and the location of Courtyard’s next exotic hotel room location: a field-level suite at U.S. Bank Stadium the night before Super Bowl LII in February.
“What is it really like to wake up Super Bowl morning in the stadium?” Callette Nielsen, Marriott vice president and global brand leader of Courtyard hotels, said. “This is an immersive experience, one of a kind.”
This is the third year of Courtyard’s Super Bowl Sleepover contest in which a stadium suite is converted into a hotel room and awarded to one winner and a guest on the basis of the most unique NFL fan photo posted to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #CourtyardSuperBowlContest (through November 3). The 4D VR video short portrayed a dream sequence with snowfall (the game is in Minnesota, albeit in a dome), a simulated the opening kickoff and included a personalized greeting from NFL Network host Rich Eisen, urging the guest to bask in the “quiet energy of the stadium.”
“There’s something special about this year being on the field,” Nielsen said. “That’s a view that only a player gets.”
Courtyard also endeavors to cater a personalized Super Bowl weekend itinerary for the winner — culminating in game tickets, natch — based on his or her allegiances. Last year’s winner, for instance, was diehard Dallas Cowboys fan Frankie Morales, who received a welcome from retired fullback Daryl “Moose” Johnston and breakfast-in-bed from tight end Jason Witten. Marriott announced the prize to Morales with a surprise appearance from former Cowboys receiver Miles Austin.
Such a pampered trip sure made the day leading up to the game far more enjoyable than it ever is for the players. That was the laughing observation of retired New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, who helped promote the event along with former teammate Rashad Jennings. (Now a student at Wharton business school, Tuck said he received an excused absence for the class he was missing and would be able to review a recording of the lecture that evening.) Tuck, who won two Super Bowls with the Giants, remembered much more personal stress when waking up before the championship game.
“It’s a whole lot worse than waking up in one of these experiences,” Tuck said. “Super Bowl morning is nerve-wracking because it’s the biggest game of your life. You’re trying to stay calm. You’re trying to do the same things that you’ve done throughout the entire year.”
