Hotel brands tips

Oberoi Group — known for its luxury hotel brands Oberoi and Trident — is quietly developing new hotels close to nature, the company’s top boss revealed on Wednesday.

Hilton said Wednesday it had acquired a majority controlling interest in Sydell Group, the owner of NoMad Hotels.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced its 25th brand Tuesday, WaterWalk Extended Stay by Wyndham.

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) looks to open an average of 2 hotels per month or even more in fiscal year 2024-2025, Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and CEO of IHCL, announced during an earnings call on Friday.

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts is a leading operator of hotels and all-inclusive resorts.

While luxury boutique hotels have always appealed to a certain set, Small Luxury Hotels of the World is trying to create more converts. In October, it launched a marketing campaign around a so-called “private collection” to amplify the message that “smaller is better.”

Hotel company Sonesta said on Tuesday it would launch a new brand, Sonesta Essential, and offer a just-added brand, The James, to developers.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson and Virgin Group announced a reorganization of their hotel brands on Thursday. Virgin Group, which owns a half-dozen luxury Virgin Hotels, will take control of Branson’s private collection of hotels, retreats, and islands (including Branson’s own much-hyped Necker Island), marketed as Virgin Limited Edition.

TMC Hospitality has a theory about U.S. travel. It believes that more people are traveling in groups — for reunions, team meetings, and destination weddings — than before. But it also believes that the typical hotel today isn’t aren’t equipped with the amenities addressing these travelers’ needs.

Hotel companies have been launching new brands again. Hilton Worldwide said on Wednesday it had created its first hotel brand in the economy segment, Spark by Hilton. Accor, the owner of the world’s most hotel brands, said last week it had reorganized itself around its brands. Marriott International, Wyndham Worldwide, Hyatt, Kerzner, and Best Western have created or bought hotel brands in the past several months.

Hilton Worldwide is rolling out its first-ever hotel brand in the economy slice of the market, Spark by Hilton, taking on rivals such as Marriott International, Choice, and InterContinental Hotels Group in this competitive market segment.

Starwood Capital, a real estate investment firm run by Barry Sternlicht — who has scaled up high-end brands W Hotels, St. Regis Hotels, 1 Hotels, Treehouse Hotels, and Baccarat Hotels — said it would help launch a limited-service hotel brand focused on the outdoor sector. Enter the iconic media brand Field & Stream, founded in 1895.

Some industry observers speculated that the pandemic would speed up consolidation of the hotel sector, as owners of independent hotels might find cost and other pressures too difficult and would essentially sell out to the big brands. So what was the state of the independent hotel sector in 2022, as the pandemic subsided, according to just-released numbers?

Over 14 years, hotel operator Hilton Worldwide has doubled its number of hotel and resort brands to 19 and more than doubled its number of rooms to 1.1 million. During the pandemic recovery, the McLean, Virginia-based hotel giant is looking to fine-tune its brands and portfolio, especially in light of its introduction in January of its first economy brand, Spark by Hilton.

To better understand the independent luxury hotel scene, I recently sat down with Gordon Drake, who last year became CEO of the Doyle Collection — an Irish family owned group of luxury hotels operating in Dublin, Cork, London, Bristol, and Washington D.C.

Hilton Worldwide announced on Tuesday that it’s opening an extended-stay brand as part as its efforts to make inroads in the booming sector. The new brand, which has been assigned the working title Project H3, will be the twentieth in the company’s portfolio.

Sonesta International Hotel Corporation announced the debut of two soft brands within its expanding portfolio, Classico, A Sonesta Collection, and MOD, A Sonesta Collection. These two new brands offer independent hotel owners the opportunity to affiliate with Sonesta’s network while retaining their iconic hotel names, identities, designs, and established styles.

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It’s a good time to stay at a hotel. J.D. Power just released its annual North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, which measures how real travelers feel about different hotel brands, and the results are promising.