"Reconnection" is a word that appears often on the website of Azulik, a luxury eco-resort nestled in the jungle of Tulum, Mexico.
28.08.2024 - 22:34 / thepointsguy.com / Billie Eilish
Can cool and conglomerate coexist — let alone thrive — when it comes to edgy lifestyle brands and multibillion-dollar hotel parent companies?
Hyatt and Standard International will be the latest test over whether lifestyle hotels can flourish post-acquisition, following Hyatt's earlier takeovers of Dream Hotel Group and Two Roads Hospitality (which delivered the company brands like Thompson Hotels and Alila).
Competitors like Hilton acquired lifestyle hotel brands Graduate and NoMad in the last year, Accor took a majority stake in lifestyle hotel group Ennismore (owner of The Hoxton) in 2021, while IHG Hotels & Resorts made a splash in 2015 when it acquired Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants — seen as the originator of the boutique-turned-lifestyle hotel concept.
Lifestyle brands are a lot like celebrities: Their star power can grow brighter just as fast as they fade out. But whereas brands like W and Kimpton may have hit a few stumbles here and there in terms of maintaining their star wattage, Standard continues to high kick and grab headlines 25 years after first opening in West Hollywood.
Hyatt's upcoming Standard acquisition includes The Standard, The StandardX, Bunkhouse Hotels, The Peri Hotel and The Manner brands, which have a global presence (some more than others). While you'll be waiting a bit for these brands to integrate into the World of Hyatt network, here's what you need to know about each of the upcoming brands entering the Hyatt ecosystem.
It's probably insulting to consider Standard International's cooler-than-cool namesake brand the "grand dame" of the whole enterprise. Everyone from Madonna to Billie Eilish continues to show up to perform or just hang out in the brand's The Standard, High Line, location in Manhattan — so this isn't exactly like any of its soon-to-be-siblings in the Hyatt orbit elsewhere in New York City. The Standard is the pinnacle of the lifestyle hotel orbit, as its bars like Le Bain and restaurants like The Standard Grill are buzzed about just as much, if not more so, than the guest rooms upstairs.
But this is a lifestyle hotel concept that extends beyond its High Line and East Village branches in New York City. While the original West Hollywood location is no longer, there are currently eight options to check in at a Standard around the world. The brand's colorful aesthetic wins over global jet setters, from London and Miami to Bangkok. Additional Standard hotels are in the works for cities like Singapore, Lisbon and Dublin.
Each Standard property comes with a hefty bar and restaurant line-up that each seems to have a simple requirement: Be the hottest ticket in town. Rooms and suites are unpretentious, albeit on the more luxurious end of the lifestyle hotel
"Reconnection" is a word that appears often on the website of Azulik, a luxury eco-resort nestled in the jungle of Tulum, Mexico.
Travellers, including British tourists post-Brexit, will soon face a new hurdle when visiting Europe.
As the summer travel season winds down, travelers can take advantage of fall travel deals as a jumpstart for their next vacation. Norse Atlantic Airways, a discount European airline, recently revealed dozens of flight deals on flights from the United States to Europe throughout the rest of 2024 and early 2025 as part of a September Sale. The sale extends to several top tourist destinations in Europe including Athens, Berlin, London, and Rome, all for less than $200 one-way. Travelers can purchase the fare sale tickets between today and September 12, however the tickets are sold in limited quantities, which means the sale could end sooner. Best of all, the discounts are available in Norse’s Economy Light cabin, which, as of September 2, will also include a standard carry-on bag. The cabin class previously had a fee for carry-on bags, or required the purchase of a higher class of fare. In addition to Economy Light, Norse offers Economy Classic which includes a meal service and standard checked bag, and Economy Flextra which includes priority boarding and is a refundable fare. Travel + Leisure spotted dozens of one-way flight deals available including:
Flying with a baby for the first time can be as momentous as their first steps, first bite of first solid food, or first drop off at daycare. And like all those milestones, parents can feel understandably freaked out beforehand. No one, not even your baby themself, knows how a child will react to being on an airplane for the first time. And no matter what happens, one thing's for sure: you'll be stuck in a cabin full of strangers for at least a couple hours while you find out.
Choosing which airline to fly can often make (or break) your travel experience from the moment you check in, but it turns out that luggage allowance is the top priority for most passengers when booking flights.
The Olympic Games in Paris generated a lot of excitement around the cleanup project of the Seine River, where triathlon and swimming competitions took place. And there’s more to come: Mayor Anne Hidalgo plans to open three public swimming spots on the Seine by next summer, and similar projects are in the works in Boston, London and Amsterdam.
Indian Gen Z and Millennials prefer to travel in the off-peak season to avoid crowds and reduce costs, according to a report by online visa application platform Atlys.
Sep 3, 2024 • 7 min read
Despite the promise of smoother security procedures at major airports in 2024, the plan to roll out advanced scanners that would eradicate the need to separate liquids and electronics and adhere to the strict 100ml rule has hit more than a few road bumps.
Over the last few years, Burning Man has become known as a haven for Silicon Valley tech bros and Instagram influencers who cough up thousands of dollars to party in "Mad Max" desert cosplay.
London is in its global hotel brand era: In the last year, it’s added a Raffles, a Peninsula and a second Mandarin Oriental; a Waldorf Astoria, a St. Regis and a Six Senses are on their way. This new guard is taking over historical icons and throwing up gleaming towers, and it’s upping the ante on amenities, too. A posh afternoon tea is no longer enough, it seems; now, five-stars come with signature scents, subterranean spas, museum-worthy art and long-stay residences. Rooftop bars, a rarity here a decade ago, are now seemingly obligatory (Bar 33 at the Emory wins for views, with everything from Big Ben to Battersea Power Station in its sights). But there’s still room for the occasional independent hotel, like the Broadwick, a maximalist love letter to the owner Noel Hayden’s hotelier parents and the creative Soho of the ’90s in which he came of age. “It’s a bit of a sensory overload,” Hayden says. Naturally, there’s a rooftop bar there, too.
Nine hours before my flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac) was due to depart, I got an email from the airline that my flight was delayed. I was annoyed since the weather was clear both in Seattle and at my destination but didn’t really think too much about it—until I checked the news and saw that the airport was under a cyberattack.