Is this week the day lifestyle hotels died? It depends on who you ask.
Hyatt this week officially completed its asset-light acquisition of Standard International, meaning Hyatt owns the business but not the real estate. At 25 years old, Standard is still a trending lifestyle hotel chain with brands such as The Standard, Standard X, Bunkhouse Hotel, and The Manor, a new luxury concept in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood.
(For those wondering what a lifestyle hotel is, a refresher: A lifestyle hotel is often a hotel with an emphasis on design, bars, and restaurants, and guests staying at the hotel.) As one person told me, “It’s a boutique hotel with less annoying dim lighting in the lobby.”
The acquisition of Standard adds 22 hotels to the Hyatt network worldwide, totaling 2,000 rooms. More than 30 projects are in various stages of development in Standard International’s orbit and will also become part of Hyatt. Although the deal is complete, it is unclear when Standard-affiliated hotels will join World of Hyatt, although Hyatt executives say there are many in Standard’s portfolio tied to the Chicago-based hotel giant. This suggests that there are growth opportunities.
“The development community knew this was an industry changer when we saw it, and we believe that the brand ethos of The Standard and Bunkhouse and Hyatt’s “There is a clear desire to integrate the power of networks and distribution systems.” week. “Developers love this combination as much as we do.”
The StandardX, Melbourne/Standard Hotel
It’s a big win for Hyatt, which continues to expand into luxury and lifestyle hotels, but hotel circles say the $335 million deal could mean the fun and quirky brand will be further eclipsed by larger conglomerates. There’s a lot of buzz going on.
No one bothered to go on record with this article, but there will be plenty of cynics who will say that post-IHG acquisition Kimpton is no match for its heyday as the birthplace of the boutique hotel movement. Marriott executives acknowledge that W Hotels has lost some of its cool factor along the way, but they are making progress toward getting back on track with moves like reimagining properties such as W Hollywood, W New York and Union Square. accomplished.
So should we plan a funeral for all the things that make a standard a standard?
Speaking from personal experience, when you walk into a New York hotel that is part of the Dream Hotel Group portfolio, now owned by Hyatt, you feel like you’re at a party that ended years ago (Nashville’s A new hotel in a city like this would be nice though). You could say it’s alarm bells ringing when you hear another cool brand being swallowed up by one of the conglomerates.
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There are many reasons why Hyatt would want to acquire a company like Standard International. First and foremost, it is a lifestyle hotel company that is still around after more than 20 years in business. The same can’t be said for Dream, but perhaps Hyatt has an element of wanting to further its position in Manhattan’s lifestyle hotel scene.
standard high line
The Standard portfolio does a good job on that front with some of the most trendy hotels around the world, including London and Bangkok, with even more robust portfolios along the way.
“They want to grow their brand, right? When you’re dealing with a portfolio of just 20 or so assets and you get to 100, that’s always going to change,” says CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors. Daniel Lesser says. “What will it be? I’m not sure, but it will definitely fill the Hyatt void.”
In recent years, Hyatt has swallowed up other lifestyle brands, including Thompson Hotels, Alila and Dream. But the Hyatt-Standard deal is a recognition by major hotel brands that lifestyle hotels are a different kind of entity and require a different kind of management and creative structure to stay in the headlines. There are indications that this is the latest example.
Rather than basing Hyatt’s growing lifestyle team in Chicago, the company is basing a new group focused on lifestyle hotels in New York City. The team will be led by Amar Lalvani, former executive chairman of Standard International. TPG previously reported that Standard CEO Amber Usher is set to leave the company later this year.
The Standard Bangkok. Cameron Sperance/The Point Guy
This quasi-autonomy for lifestyle hotels is already seen at Accor, which has majority-owned Anysmore Lifestyle Group (which includes brands such as The Hoxton and Gleneagles) as an offshoot of a major Paris-based conglomerate. are. Even the Marriott Edition brand, considered the world’s largest hotel company’s most talked-about lifestyle brand, has more autonomy, having been launched in partnership with lifestyle and nightlife guru Ian Schrager. I did.
“The lifestyle sector is not for the faint of heart. It requires creativity and dedication,” Lalvani said in a statement this week. “But if you do it right, you can reap the benefits of outsized guest loyalty and outsized developer profits. The benefit of this combination is that Hyatt respects the creativity and freedom we have to deliver our experiences. , that we honor the values of Hyatt’s story: history, world-class infrastructure, and best-in-class commercial service.”
Of course, this is the hotel industry, and it often takes more than just giving creative authority to someone outside of headquarters. More importantly, where you don’t have a hotel, it’s important to leave no room for your loyal customers to experience competition.
“At the end of the day, Hyatt has some holes to fill in terms of offering as many services and expanding its footprint as Hilton, Marriott and IHG,” Lesser said. “The last thing a hotel company or hotel brand family wants is to force their loyal travelers to travel to a place they don’t have a product offering.”
For our part, we’re looking forward to seeing if the endless World of Hyatt Globalist bypass that enters The Standard, Le Bain on the High Line, ever arrives.
what? we can dream!
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