Excerpt from The Telegraph
From concept hotels to flexible check-outs, Jade Conroy considers the new innovations to expect this year.
More beds for millenials
As hotels continue to fight against the popularity of Airbnb, they are expanding their appeal to ‘millennial’ travellers (18-35 year-olds). And we’re not just referring to emoji room service. Big-brand hotel groups are tapping into the youth market by launching diffusion brands which come at a cheaper price point, and often have a strong focus on lifestyle, locality and insider knowledge, compared to their bigger siblings. They’re more likely to be located in Brooklyn over Manhattan, for example, or in up-and-coming destinations.
Hilton’s younger brand Canopy opens its first outpost in Reykjavik this year; Hyatt Centric will open in Uruguay; while Viceroy’s hotel Proper, envisioned as a ‘grand hotel for the modern age’, will open in San Francisco. On top of that Generator, the ‘posh hostel’ group, have announced new openings in Rome, Amsterdam and Stockholm.
Hotel group shake-ups
At the end of last year it was announced that Marriott and Starwood are merging to create what will be the world’s largest hotel company. The union of the two industry mainstays means that the gamut of hotel brands will range from the EDITION and Autograph Collection to the W and St Regis. The newly created group will have more than 1.1 million hotel rooms worldwide.
Following that, Accor Hotels, who own affordable brands such as M Gallery, Mama Shelter and Novotel, will join forces with a hotel group at the other end of the spectrum, luxury group FRHI Holding (owners of Fairmont, Raffles and Swisshotel). Elsewhere Morgans Hotel Group have just announced they are putting the Hudson New York and Miami’s Delano up for sale.
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