For any hotel company trying to get a foothold in the lifestyle hotel space, one of the original players wants to show that it can still be relevant.
The W Hotels brand, comprising almost 60 hotels, is part of the foundation of today’s lifestyle hotel segment, hotels that focus more on food and drink than the average hotel. Founded by Barry Sternlicht and finally incorporated into Marriott International following the acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2016, the brand was known for lobbies – known as “living rooms” – and bars and nightclubs that are the pinnacle of the Seeing and being were seen in abundance.
W was the very cool brother of the hotel industry in the late 90s and early 2000s. But there is a problem with being the over-cool siblings. Younger siblings often come along and grab all the attention.
Accor has been most upbeat on its foray into lifestyle hotels, blending its own brands like SLS and Mondrian and now partner brands like The Hoxton and Gleneagles as part of an Ennismore joint venture. IHG Hotels & Resorts competes in this area with brands like Kimpton – who are considered to be the founders of the predecessor of the lifestyle sector: Boutique hotels – and Hyatt has brands like Thompson Hotels and Andaz.
W is even competing for attention within its own family of brands as Marriott has added others like Edition – the result of a partnership between Marriott and hotel and nightlife legend Ian Schrager. The buzz around the edition can sound terribly like the W from 20 years ago.
Lots of younger brands in a variety of hotel businesses have been gnawing on the attention and cool factor that W Hotels once had a tight grip on, and Marriott International wasn’t exactly calm that it was must find a way to bring the excitement back to his lifestyle hotel concept.
“It’s no secret that W Hotels have changed consumer expectations of a hotel. W has transformed a transactional place to sleep and order room service into a socially minded destination that is just as important to a local as it is to someone who is out of town, ”Tom Jarrold, W Hotels Worldwide global brand leader, told Skift. “Now that many hotel brands work like this, that’s one more reason for us to refresh and develop.”
Like spots on a giraffe: Marriott executives aren’t quite ready to provide many details on what the property-level W Brand update will look like, but Jarrold said it will roll out “across all brand touchpoints” over the next two years, which include design, guest experience and marketing ”in a way that is meant to be“ inspiring, modern, playful and original ”.
Some of the hotels in the company’s development pipeline can be built from scratch in the brand’s new direction, while existing hotels could focus more on remodeling guest rooms and public spaces.
Marriott has lifted the flag of several W Hotels – including the brand’s original property in New York City – A few years ago, when concerns about the brand’s darkening star status made headlines on hotel news. But the brand is in growth mode today.
In recent months, new properties have opened in Philadelphia, Rome, the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Changsha, and Nashville, Tennessee. New W properties are slated to open in Macau, Dubai and Tuscany over the next two years.
The company is pointing out recent openings or deals in progress to once again vie for the brand for a leadership position in the lifestyle hospitality industry. Some of this means ditching the old industry gamebook, doing those kind of hotels with only dim lighting and a mention on page six, and instead rolling out the welcome mat for more than just VIPs.
The rise of Accor into the lifestyle hotel sector is about inviting the surrounding neighborhood for a drink or a meal. Expect something like this to be enhanced with the new look of a W hotel; However, Jarrold noted that the brand “has always designed our hotels with the locals in mind”.
Details to freshen up may be sparse, but W’s brand standard is that each hotel has its own unique approach to blending in with its surroundings.
“Although we’re not ready to show our cards yet, we can say that the vision we have developed will be robust and will shape design, service culture, gastronomy and programming – the entire guest experience,” said Jarrold. “One thing that will always be of paramount importance is the way each W accepts its local destination. We will continue to draw from the cultural and social knowledge of the city in an authentic, distinctive and unexpected way – and thus contribute to our competitive advantage. “
The recently opened W Nashville has six ground floor entrances designed to signal a welcome greeting to neighbors to visit the property’s restaurants and retail stores. The property also features the Spanish Steps, a nod to the original in Rome, which doubles as a meeting place and an amphitheater with live music.
But there’s still a certain degree of exclusivity: the Tennessee hotel also includes the Welcome Den, a new guest-only W concept where visitors can use their room key to relax, have a drink, or make business calls to receive.
The new W Rome borrows heavily from lifestyle hospitality design, including a hidden door that leads to the Parlapiano – a secret garden with traditional Italian stone, greenery, and fountains of water.
Courted owners: A brand refresh, no matter how much independence an individual property is given, still requires the owner to pump money into their hotel. That can be a currently difficult to sell at a time when there is so much uncertainty about which long-term demand drivers will be for the hotel industry.
But investors seem to be okay with the brand’s evolution. According to a Skift report at the time, around half of W Hotels’ US portfolio was under renovation at the end of 2019.
Some of the brand’s best-known properties continue to attract buyers, and for good reason. W Hotels has a broad portfolio of hotels in major cities around the world as well as in popular holiday destinations.
Marriott International bought W Union Square – an anomaly since most hotel companies don’t own much of their own properties and instead franchise them to trademark rights – in 2019 for $ 206 million with plans to substantially renovate the property in the brand’s new look. At that time, the owners of W Hotels in North America had allocated $ 200 million to renovate hotels in the United States and Canada.
Trinity Investments acquired the W Hollywood from Host Hotels & Resorts for nearly $ 200 million late last year. While host CEO James Risoleo noted in a press release the hotel had “large capital needs” the Trinity team doesn’t believe this will mean abandoning the W brand.
“When we worked on W Hollywood, we spent a lot of time with Marriott and [asked about] the future of W ”, Sean Hehrir, Principal and Managing Partner at Trinity investmentssaid in an interview with Skift. “They convinced us that they are going to reinvent W … We believe that Marriott has a strong commitment to really investing in W as a brand and taking it to the next level.”
Mandarin stake reveals slump in NYC luxury hotel values
It might be the only bargain associated with the tony Mandarin Oriental New York in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle. The Indian company Reliance Industries bought 73.37 percent of the shares in the ultra-luxurious hotel with 248 rooms for about $ 98 million.
That would make the entire property worth just under $ 134 million, well below the $ 340 million the hotel was valued at in 2007. according to a report in the New York Post. The bargain sale is the result of how hard the pandemic has hit hotels in major cities that rely on a mix of business and international travel to fill rooms.
But prospective guests shouldn’t take advantage of the property discount, as rooms get a similar discount. The best available Sunday night rate at the Mandarin Oriental New York was $ 735, according to the hotel’s website.
