NEW BRANDS: FROM A TO Z ACE
Known for its half-dozen eclectic properties in the US, the London outpost in Shoreditch is popular with Silicon Roundabout types.
CANOPY
Reykjavik is set to showcase Hilton’s entry into the lifestyle sector early next year, with the Minories in Aldgate expected to be the base for the debut London Canopy.
EVEN Intercontinental Hotel Group’s bid to woo health-conscious travellers will get a boost in November, when its third Even hotel opens in the US, this time in New York’s Manhattan.
1 HOTELS
An eco-friendly brand recently launched in Miami and Manhattan by veteran hotelier Barry Sternlicht, who founded Starwood’s successful W boutique hotels.
VENU
Jumeirah Group’s new “modern contemporary lifestyle brand” is set for a 2017 launch with a 300-room property on Bluewaters Island in Dubai. The brand was first considered in 2010 but postponed due to the global financial crisis.
VIRGIN HOTELS Sir Richard Branson’s latest bid to leverage the iconic Virgin brand in the hospitality world (Virgin Limited Edition is his luxury resorts portfolio) has got off to a good start in Chicago with Virgin’s new “timeless” lifestyle concept, due to be rolled out in New York, Nashville and Dallas over the next two years.
Z HOTELS The “affordable compact” six- strong group of stylish hotels in London (from Soho to Shoreditch), Liverpool and Glasgow will be joined by properties in Fleet Street (December) and Marylebone next January.
78 BBT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 Hyatt Centric South Beach Miami
50 per cent of all hotel transactions across the continent – worth a total of £13.2 billion – took place in the UK. Most active in the first half was US investor Lone Star Funds, spending more than £1.2 billion on acquiring over 13,000 rooms in London and the regions. Branded properties it gained ranged from Jurys Inn to Hilton, Mercure to MGallery, which will be managed by a new company called Amaris Hospitality. But the Chinese are also circling Europe-
an hotels: earlier this year, hotelier Jin Jiang acquired the French-based Louvre Hotels, Europe’s second biggest hotel group, for £1.2 billion. This propelled it into tenth place in the MKG listing of global hoteliers, joining another Chinese company in the top ten, Home Inn, in ninth place. Between them they operate 15 brands, mainly in the luxury and mid-market segments.
NEW DEMOGRAPHIC
Recently-published US Census Bureau data revealed that Americans born between 1982 and 2000 (the Bureau’s definition of Mil- lennials) now number 83.1 million people, more than the 75.4 million native-born Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). Boomers were previously regarded as the key demographic for the hospitality industry – and are still very important given their disposable income and desire to travel as they move into retirement. Though most of the hotel world’s focus so far this decade has seemingly been on Gen Y, there are fewer hotels open under the new brands than most might have expected, given all the publicity.
Marriott International, for example, made quite a splash when two summers ago it unveiled plans for its new Moxy – slang for those with a gutsy attitude to life – brand aimed at Millennials. Marriott, with a repu- tation as perhaps a rather staid business-
focused hotelier, suddenly achieved instant cachet as the cheerleader for cutting-edge brands. But two years later, Marriott has only one Moxy hotel actually open – which launched last September at Milan’s Mal- pensa airport – and the roll-out (five more were due by now, mainly in Germany) has been delayed. The first UK Moxys are still slated for next year, at locations includ- ing Stratford City, London’s docklands, Aberdeen Airport and Heathrow. Premier Inn, the UK’s biggest hotelier, owned by Whitbread, also jumped on the Millennials bandwagon in 2013, with news of a new sub-brand – Hub by Premier Inn – half the size of a typical Premier room but cleverly designed and packed with technology to appeal to Millennials. But after the first Hub opened a year ago, in London’s Covent Garden, the next dozen planned for London and Edinburgh are not due to start rolling out until next year. Has the Millennial hotels boom already
run out of steam? “I think the Millennials narrative has waned,” admits David Bailey, senior director for CBRE Hotels, a consul- tancy and real estate firm. “Millennials do not have a monopoly on technology and social media, and the customers of these new lifestyle formats have proved wider than just Gen Y.” But he thinks the focus on the new generation of travellers has been beneficial for all hotel guests, spawning in- novation among hoteliers “that has reached beyond Millennials”. Business travellers may not be as enam-
oured with the plethora of new lifestyle brands and sub-brands as their hotel creators may have hoped. “I’ve not seen any evidence of travellers transitioning to them from more traditional hotels,” says Jef Robinson, a global travel buyer at Citrix Systems. He also believes the growth of smaller or sub-brands “could be confusing
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