Hyatt officially owns lifestyle hotel group Standard International. Now what?

04.10.2024 - 17:31 / thepointsguy.com / Mark Hoplamazian

Does this week mark the day the lifestyle hotel died? Depends on who you ask.

Hyatt officially closed this week on its asset-light takeover (meaning Hyatt will own the operations but not the real estate) of Standard International. Standard, the still-trendy-at-25 chain of lifestyle hotels, encompasses brands like The Standard, StandardX, Bunkhouse Hotels and The Manner, a new luxury concept in New York City's SoHo neighborhood.

(A refresher for those wondering what even is a lifestyle hotel: They tend to be properties leaning more into design, bars and restaurants that locals want to get into as much as the guests staying at the hotel. Someone also once described them to me as "boutique hotels with way less of the annoying dim lighting in the lobby.")

The Standard takeover adds 22 hotels worldwide with a combined 2,000 rooms to the Hyatt network. More than 30 projects are in various stages of development in the Standard International orbit and will also become part of Hyatt. While the deal is closed, it isn't clear when the Standard-affiliated hotels will join World of Hyatt, but Hyatt leaders indicate there are plenty of growth opportunities for the Standard portfolio now tethered to the Chicago-based hotel giant.

"The development community knows an industry game changer when they see it, and the enthusiasm for bringing together the ethos of The Standard and Bunkhouse brands and the power of Hyatt's network and distribution system is palpable," Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian said in a statement this week. "Developers love this combination as much as we do."

It's a major win for Hyatt's continued push into luxury and lifestyle hotels, but there's plenty of chatter in the hotel orbit that this $335 million takeover is further erosion of fun, whimsical brands into major conglomerates.

While none were willing to go on the record for this story, you'll find plenty of cynics who say that Kimpton, post-IHG takeover, is nothing like its heyday as the birthplace of the boutique hotel movement. Marriott leadership has acknowledged W Hotels lost its cool factor somewhere along the way, but they have made strides in righting the ship with moves like reimagining properties like W Hollywood and W New York — Union Square.

So, should we be planning for a funeral for everything that makes Standard, well, Standard?

From personal experience, stepping foot into some of the New York properties in the now Hyatt-owned Dream Hotel Group portfolio feels like arriving at a party that ended several years ago (though the newer properties in cities like Nashville are lovely). You might say the warning bells go off when I hear of yet another cool brand getting gobbled up by one of the conglomerates.

There are plenty of reasons why