Can cool and conglomerate coexist — let alone thrive — when it comes to edgy lifestyle brands and multibillion-dollar hotel parent companies?
Hyatt and Standard International will be the latest test over whether lifestyle hotels can flourish post-acquisition, following Hyatt’s earlier takeovers of Dream Hotel Group and Two Roads Hospitality (which delivered the company brands like Thompson Hotels and Alila).
Competitors like Hilton acquired lifestyle hotel brands Graduate and NoMad in the last year, Accor took a majority stake in lifestyle hotel group Ennismore (owner of The Hoxton) in 2021, while IHG Hotels & Resorts made a splash in 2015 when it acquired Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants — seen as the originator of the boutique-turned-lifestyle hotel concept.
Lifestyle brands are a lot like celebrities: Their star power can grow brighter just as fast as they fade out. But whereas brands like W and Kimpton may have hit a few stumbles here and there in terms of maintaining their star wattage, Standard continues to high kick and grab headlines 25 years after first opening in West Hollywood.
Hyatt’s upcoming Standard acquisition includes The Standard, The StandardX, Bunkhouse Hotels, The Peri Hotel and The Manner brands, which have a global presence (some more than others). While you’ll be waiting a bit for these brands to integrate into the World of Hyatt network, here’s what you need to know about each of the upcoming brands entering the Hyatt ecosystem.
The Standard
It’s probably insulting to consider Standard International’s cooler-than-cool namesake brand the “grand dame” of the whole enterprise. Everyone from Madonna to Billie Eilish continues to show up to perform or just hang out in the brand’s The Standard, High Line, location in Manhattan — so this isn’t exactly like any of its soon-to-be-siblings in the Hyatt orbit elsewhere in New York City. The Standard is the pinnacle of the lifestyle hotel orbit, as its bars like Le Bain and restaurants like The Standard Grill are buzzed about just as much, if not more so, than the guest rooms upstairs.
But this is a lifestyle hotel concept that extends beyond its High Line and East Village branches in New York City. While the original West Hollywood location is no longer, there are currently eight options to check in at a Standard around the world. The brand’s colorful aesthetic wins over global jet setters, from London and Miami to Bangkok. Additional Standard hotels are in the works for cities like Singapore, Lisbon and Dublin.
Each Standard property comes with a hefty bar and restaurant line-up that each seems to have a simple requirement: Be the hottest ticket in town. Rooms and suites are unpretentious, albeit on the more luxurious end of the lifestyle hotel spectrum. Standard staff are also part of the draw — acting like your new best friend in an exotic locale. If you ask me, Hyatt’s finally hitting the mark in its wave of lifestyle hotel brand acquisitions with The Standard brand alone, as these hotels are significantly better maintained than some of the older Dream Hotels I’ve frequented.
The StandardX
One of Standard’s newest offerings is The StandardX, a “rebellious younger sibling” that acts to The Standard what Tommie is to Thompson Hotels. This more affordable brand debuted in Melbourne, Australia, this year and has global growth ambitions for distinct, cultural neighborhoods around the world.
Daily Newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
“[The StandardX hotels] will be in neighborhoods that we think fit this new brand,” Standard International CEO Amber Asher said in an interview with TPG earlier this year. “We’re not creating the brand just to grow it. We’re creating the brand for the opportunity to be in a neighborhood and to explore things in a different way.”
While StandardX has a similar vibe as its older sibling, guests should expect a more streamlined experience at a more affordable nightly rate. Therefore, expect cozier rooms — albeit roomier than what you’d find at competitors like Marriott’s Moxy or Ennismore’s The Hoxton — and bars and restaurants that blend in with the surrounding neighborhood. Introductory rates at The StandardX in Melbourne started at $168 per night.
Ahead of the StandardX brand launch, Asher specifically pointed to areas like Brooklyn, East Austin in Texas, Shoreditch in London as strong fits for The StandardX. The official next property — The StandardX, Bangkok Phra Arthit — is slated for Bangkok’s old town neighborhood. Cities that might not be able to handle The Standard’s nightly rates could also be good contenders for The StandardX.
The Peri Hotel
Standard International fans in Asia have an “approachable and family-friendly style” brand just for them with The Peri Hotel, which currently operates in two locations in Thailand. The brand is leisure-oriented for the time being with its locations in the beach destination of Hua Hin and near Khao Yai National Park. But the first urban Peri is slated to open soon in Bangkok, per the Standard International website.
Guests can expect simple, clean, colorful designs in guest rooms. Amenities include specialty bars and restaurants that reflect the local surroundings (surf lodge vibes in Hua Hin compared to a mountain lodge aesthetic in Khao Yai).
To price shop: Entry-level nightly rates at the Peri Hotel in Hua Hin averaged around $64 next month, while those at the Standard, Hua Hin (one of the most affordable in The Standard network), started at $94.
Bunkhouse Hotels
One of the more surprising growth drivers at Standard International is from a brand you might not be familiar with. Bunkhouse Hotels is the company’s platform of smaller hotels in states like Texas, California and Kentucky as well as Mexico. These smaller lifestyle hotels range from motel conversions to trendy boutique hotels in markets that maybe can’t quite handle a full-scale Standard — but still like to party.
“There are these amazing cultural elements to a lot of little cities that perhaps are not those gateway markets,” Asher told me in an interview last summer. “A lot of the creative classes moved into those cities where life can be a little bit less high stress, so it’s a huge opportunity.”
The typical Bunkhouse property ranges from 14 to 120 rooms and maintains a unique, individual brand identity. In Austin alone, there are five Bunkhouse hotels: the Austin Motel, Carpenter Hotel, Hotel Magdalena, Hotel Saint Cecilia and Hotel San Jose.
“I think one of the biggest white spaces is and continues to be operating smaller hotels because there are so many independently owned hotels, whether it’s family-owned hotels in Asia or anywhere in the U.S.,” Asher said.
The Manner
Not yet open but still generating plenty of buzz is The Manner, an upcoming luxury concept Standard is opening in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. Details are light at the moment, but the company development website notes the brand ethos “embodies the generosity, discretion and effortlessness of staying with friends in New York’s most stylish neighborhood” — that is, staying with a friend with a knack for chic design.
A Women’s Wear Daily feature on the soon-to-open hotel notes The Manner is meant to be the grown-up sibling to The Standard, so expect a more refined vibe with greater attention to detail and service. The property will feature guests-only spaces for cocktails and rooftop coffee but also feature restaurants open to the public.
How this all plays into Hyatt and beyond
There is an industry sentiment these days that smaller, buzzworthy hotel brands like Standard International all feel a sense of inevitability in terms of getting swallowed up by bigger conglomerates like Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott. But what happens after the dust settles is still a tad murky.
Industry cynics will say these big conglomerates are where cool goes to die. However, newly acquired lifestyle brands are increasingly being given autonomy, as some of these hotel parent companies appear to recognize they need a different creative approach to maintain brand appeal.
Standard has more brands to absorb than some of the other lifestyle players, so it will be interesting to see if Hyatt maintains all of these or if some get swallowed up by soft brands like JdV by Hyatt and the Unbound Collection.
In the meantime, it will be intriguing to see what happens over the next few years outside the walls of the major hotel groups.
Is everyone just waiting to get gobbled up and tap into major loyalty networks? Or, perhaps a next generation of Ian Schrager and Bill Kimpton-esque hoteliers emerge to seize an opportunity to fill in the void.
Related reading:
