Something good is cooking up at Embassy Suites — and we’re talking about more than just the fresh, made-to-order omelets included in the nightly rate.
Forty years after the first Embassy Suites opened in Overland Park, Kansas, the brand is charting a new course — one that’s bringing the full-service chain, popular with both business and leisure travelers, into modern times. With a fresh design aesthetic and new properties in major cities, alongside full-on beach resorts, Embassy Suites is, dare I say, becoming cool. (As in, Embassy Suites might just have the best rooftop pool in one of the country’s major “it” cities: Nashville.)
But how has this once-sleepy brand reinvited itself? By adapting and marrying its tried-and-true brand pillars with forward-thinking innovations, the timeless hotel brand is as current as ever.
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Same breakfast, new kitchen
“What hasn’t changed are the things that people came to know and love about Embassy Suites,” Bonnie Campagnuolo, brand leader of Embassy Suites by Hilton, told TPG. Those tried-and-true perks include a free hot breakfast, two free drinks during the hotel’s daily evening reception and an all-suite experience that affords guests the chance to spread out. “You’re not hoping for an upgrade. You know, you’re going to have a spacious room.”
In terms of what has changed: “What is changing and has changed,” said Campagnuolo, “is the design of the buildings.”
Historically, many Embassy Suites have been designed around a center atrium, which, says Campagnuolo, is “not the most efficient to build in today’s world.”
For the last 10 years, the brand has been constructing new-build Embassy Suites with a fresh design, alongside renovating most of the properties in the collection to add even bigger rooms, more modern decor, more counter space, updated tech, fresh in-room amenities and more local touches.
From the beach to the boardroom
Of the new-build properties, none stands out quite like the downtown Nashville location.
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Located in a 30-story high-rise near the convention center, this massive Embassy Suites offers a staggering 506 all-suite accommodations (including options with balconies), each designed in a subtle country motif (think: walls that look like they’re covered in reclaimed barn wood and moody photography depicting musicians on stage, a nod to the city’s musical roots and massive entertainment industry.)
But what’s most interesting is how the hotel found a way to cater extensively to both business travelers and leisure travelers, two groups that Campagnuolo says find Embassy Suites attractive.
In Nashville, business folks are just across the street from the Music City Center and its neverending list of conferences and conventions, while the hotel boasts indoor and outdoor meeting and conference space to the tune of 32,000 square feet. For leisure travelers (or business people who need to take a load off), there’s a glass-encased rooftop pool offering a swim with sky-high views, the city’s highest rooftop bar and restaurant, and an ideal location that’s a quick walk to honky-tonks of Lower Broadway, the Country Music Hall of Fame, sporting and concert venues, and more.
“It’s really a special spot,” said Campagnuolo, explaining that a hotel of that size has to be in the “exact right … market to make it work.”
Another special spot for Embassy Suites is the beach — and a slew of Embassy Suites beach resorts have caught the attention of people looking to travel both domestically and abroad, including in one surprising destination: Aruba.
“When you think about Aruba or any resort destination, if there’s any meeting business happening, or incentive travel happening in that market, if it’s a strong family travel market and there’s the space to build the bigger room type, then we’re probably a good fit.”
At the Embassy Suites by Hilton Aruba Resort, guests can have a full-on beach vacation with an Embassy Suites twist: starting the day with a free warm breakfast for the whole family, lounging by the pool in a cabana with a cocktail or poolside lunch, or taking a private underground walkway to Eagle Beach, where the resort has lounge chairs and palapa-style umbrellas.
“The beach properties are really great, and you think about having the extra space, having a great pool [and] you don’t have to worry about breakfast,” said Campagnuolo, adding that other beach properties that should be on your radar include new builds in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Panama City, Florida, plus a remodel of the Embassy Suites by Hilton Deerfield Beach Resort & Spa in South Florida. “It gives us the chance to expand the amenities to make the hotel a destination in itself.”
Work and play
Before COVID-19, Embassy Suites was already ahead of its time in combining business travel with leisure (dare I say, bleisure?). But Embassy Suites 2.0 is working to perfect that … whether we stick with the cheesy term or not.
“Regardless of whether you’re a solo traveler or a family or a couple, if anyone’s got any work to do on your trip, it’s nice to be able to be on a call … without a bed in the background,” Campagnuolo explained, noting that new details like extra counter space, more surfaces and more places to tuck your bags away during a Zoom call are all front of mind for the brand.
Technology is also on the radar for Embassy Suites — and Hilton as a whole.
Over the past few years, Hilton has upped its in-room and on-property technology with its Connected Room program by integrating many smart tech functionalities into the room and the Hilton Honors app. This allows guests to stream their favorite TV shows, control room temperature and lights, use a phone as a digital key, or communicate directly with the front desk to request items or services.
“A lot is coming from Hilton [and] coming through your Hilton Honors app,” Campagnuolo told TPG, like opening doors or “being able to communicate directly with the hotel versus having to call, you can just say, ‘Hey, can I get a couple of towels? I’m gonna be out of the room for the next several hours.”
Many Embassy Suites properties, like those of most Hilton brands, can also confirm connecting rooms ahead of arrival, giving larger groups or families needing more space the opportunity to know exactly what their room situation will look like ahead of time.
With this momentum, Embassy Suites plans to continue growing, renovating, innovating and finding new locations that “have demand from every market type” and can allow for properties in destinations as exciting as Nashville and Aruba.
In Dubai, that’s presented itself as a dual-branded hotel, a trend that Hilton is capitalizing on, where two different hotel brands are housed in the same building and share many amenities but feel distinct and separate. In this case, Embassy Suites claims the upper floors of a property near the world’s tallest building; a Hilton Garden Inn occupies the lower 20 floors.
While that particular hotel, located in the commercial district of Business Bay, will likely attract a good mix of business travelers and tourists looking to be near attractions like the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, the highlight of the property is the view. “On one side of the building, you’ve got rooms with balconies that look right at the Burj Khalifa,” explained Campagnuolo. “So New Year’s Eve, those rooms have a straight-on shot [of the] fireworks.”
4 decades in the making
The future is bright, but this has also been a year of reflection for Campagnuolo and Embassy Suites. On May 1, the company celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first hotel in Overland Park, Kansas.
“We’re kind of unique in that the first hotel in the brand is still in the brand,” Campagnuolo said. “And we’ve got … a handful of team members there who have been with the hotel the whole time.” Others, she explained, have gone on to work at the corporate level, run their own hotels or have moved into other sectors of the hospitality industry. “The family atmosphere and relationships that were made during the years that these folks were are at these properties is so cool to see.”
So whether you’re a tried-and-true Embassy Suites loyalist who can spout an omelet order like a Waffle House line cook, a lifelong employee or someone looking for a convenient and affordable hotel brand (one that you can book on points), Embassy Suites remains steadfast on what has and continues to work, while digging deep to find ways to grow and meet travelers where they are — and where they’re going.
“People have memories with this brand, which is amazing,” Campagnuolo said, “and [they are] continuing to build those.”
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