When I first started covering the hotel industry years ago, you'd hear the insult that big brands like Marriott International and IHG Hotels & Resorts couldn't successfully own a luxury or lifestyle brand.
Kimpton wasn't the same since IHG took over, cynics would jeer. The late Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson even admitted partnering with nightlife and hotel legend Ian Schrager on Edition Hotels partially because "If we opened exactly the same box without Ian ... Would we have gotten the same reception from the market? I think the answer is no."
It's because of this that I always viewed IHG's takeover of Six Senses and Regent with a bit of skepticism. IHG needed the ultraluxury additions to its brand lineup, but would this boost to IHG mean a weakening in luxury status for the two takeover targets?
After visiting three Regent properties over the last month, it certainly seems to be a new day for luxury and lifestyle over at IHG — one that indicates the hotel giant is more than capable of running ultraluxury brands. That poses a major threat to IHG competitors like Marriott, Four Seasons, Hilton and Hyatt.
"Luxury and lifestyle brands are a strategic focus for us," said Tom Rowntree, IHG's vice president of global luxury and lifestyle brands, at the Regent Hong Kong last month. "Part of that is important from a loyalty perspective. We have a customer base seeking that. We have our loyalty members wanting us to have these aspirational brands within our offering."
"What I'm really excited about is, up until about 2015, InterContinental was our only luxury brand," he said. "What we have done is we built out a portfolio of five very distinct brands."
Kimpton, the Vignette Collection, Six Senses and Regent have all been added since then.
The last two years delivered the first batch of Regent hotels where IHG was essentially involved from the start of development: Regent Phu Quoc in Vietnam, Regent Hong Kong and Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel, in southern France. An additional hotel, Regent Santa Monica Beach in Southern California, is slated to open next year.
Jane Mackie — senior vice president of luxury, lifestyle and premium brands at IHG — told TPG at the International Luxury Travel Market conference in Cannes earlier this month that the vibe of a Regent hotel is meant to be 50% serenity, 40% unexpected harmony and 10% decadence.
"The decadence can be played up however a hotel wants," Mackie said while giving property-specific experiential offerings as an example. "We don't apologize for decadence. It's giving the hotels permission to amp that up."
The hotels follow brand standards and mantras like "personal haven," meant to provide spacious rooms that are supposed to be retreats you actually want to hang
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Leading luxury hospitality company Four Seasons, US-based real estate development firm Two Roads Development and Access Real Estate announce plans for The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences, Bahamas. Anticipated to open in 2027 and set within an oceanfront enclave on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, the upcoming residential community will present a curated collection of 67 turnkey Private Residences managed by Four Seasons located in close proximity to The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, Bahamas.
Have you ever dreamed of having an entire island resort to yourself while on vacation? Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora is enticing millionaires with that very offer: For a cool $2.74 million, you can buy out the island property and have it to yourself for an entire week, dining at open-air restaurants, snorkeling in the lagoon, and playing tennis with the resort’s pro. Or, you could invite up to 245 of your closest friends or colleagues to join you as the buyout can accommodate that many guests across its 115 accommodations.
The next Four Seasons to be the host hotel for HBO's "The White Lotus" may have been crowned, according to Hollywood chatter and a two-month blocked-out reservations page.
Seattle skies were glowing with color as the Space Needle rang in 2024 with a brilliant light, drone, and pyrotechnic spectacular for the West Coast—and the world—to see. The T-Mobile New Year’s at the Needle extravaganza was the longest show in the event’s 32-year history, stunning viewers with an 18-minute display. More viewers were able to tune in than ever before with the event broadcast live for the first time in Portland and Spokane, in addition to Seattle.
SeaWorld® Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, the region’s first Marine Life Theme Park, introduced an innovative and immersive activation that aims to inspire and educate young minds. In a creative endeavor to drive interest and promote education about marine life, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi brought its miniature submersible to Yas American Academy on Yas Island. Offering a unique experience designed to engage students, the submersible is equipped with an educational component, allowing participants to embark on a simulated underwater adventure right within their school’s courtyard. Up to six children can board the submersible at a time for a five-minute journey filled with excitement and learning.
Four Seasons New York Downtown has introduced a new in-room shopping experience that will allow guests to shop the Hotel’s most sought-after retail items from the comfort of their rooms.
Humidity. That was the first thought that went through my mind upon exiting the terminal at Bali’s Denpasar International Airport — though, to be honest, not much was happening in my brain after 27-plus hours of travel. Unable to place the exact time of day (or which day of the week it was), I managed to find our driver in a chaotic sea of hotel signs, and was immediately greeted with a cold bottle of water, wet towel, and car pulsing with air conditioning. This, I thought, couldn’t be a better welcome.
Sun Valley, Idaho is practically synonymous with skiing and winter snow sports—and for good reason. Interest in skiing surged in the decades after the first Winter Olympics in 1924. Sun Valley Resort opened in 1936 with the goal of becoming America’s premier ski resort—debuting the world’s first chairlift, adapted from a system used to haul bananas onto ships in Panama.
From Venice to Maryland, celebrate the holidays and ring in the new year with these timeless holiday cocktails from hotels and resorts around the world. Celebrate 2024 with some vintage coupe glasses, Yarai mixing glasses and cafe mugs to give the spirit a kick this New Year’s Eve.