SINGAPORE – When discussing the type of hotel products that bridge the gap between
what guests and owners want, a surprising word came up numerous times during a
panel of hotel leaders — quirky.
“The guests today want something that is fun, something that is
informal, something that is sustainable — this individual experience — and, to
some extent, digital,” said Elie Younes, EVP and global chief development officer
for Brussels-based Radisson Hotel Group. “The owner, on the other hand,
wants something that is capex friendly, conversion friendly, that’s eventually
sellable, fundable and real estate efficient.”
Younes said that hotel product is probably in the upscale segment and has characteristics
that are common in the hotel industry. “It is simple to build, easy to convert and quite quirky because the
guest wants something different, something fun, and you have to answer to the
guests and to the owner at the same time,” he added.
Younes was part of a panel last month on global development at the Hotel Investment
Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) in Singapore. Others on the panel
included Jim Chu, EVP and chief growth officer for Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels
Corp.; Serena Lim, chief growth officer for Singapore-based The Ascott Ltd.; and Camil Yazbeck, global chief development officer, premium, midscale
and economy for Paris-based Accor. It was moderated by Jeff Higley, president
of The BHN Group.
Yazbeck also mentioned the "Q word" when speaking about why Accor's
premium brands have been thriving.
“For our Pullman, Mövenpick or Swissotel [brands], we’ve had a big
uptick from our investors because the approach to the 'quirkiness' or the
lifestyle of the product attracts different types of travelers,” he said.
But Yazbeck thinks something else will define the coming years for
owners. “The future right now is what’s happening with mixed-use. The more an
owner diversifies the risk within the building, the better it becomes.
“We’re seeing dual-branded. We’re putting in extended-stay because we
have an extended-stay element to most of our brands. We’re putting in branded
residential with the luxury and the premium, which brings in cash for the
investors in advance.
"We’re putting up a lot of F&B concepts that we own or creating
new ones. We have co-working, depending on where we are… All of these together,
amalgamated, compresses the cap rate for the investor.”
When Chu was asked about what segments Hyatt is focusing on globally, he
said he thinks about it more in terms of the purpose of travel.
“Customers don’t necessarily think of it in terms of segments… A
customer is thinking about why they’re traveling, how they’re traveling, and
maybe a balance between either leisure or business,” he said.
“People are staying longer, but they’re not necessarily only staying for
leisure travel… Whether they are there for business, for leisure, for both, or
there for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), we look at
it as making sure that we’re able to serve all three segments… It’s not
specific to the segment, as it is to the type of travel and being able to match
that because people may change the reason for travel each time they do it.”
Lim said The Ascott is focusing as much on the guest experience
as the different products they develop, especially post-COVID.
“Something that we’re looking at in response [to post-COVID travel] is
that, at the end of the day, we are very defined by product. But why should we
be defined by product? We should be defined by experiences,” she said.
“We’re looking at two types of experiences where we feel the growth is.
One is luxury — the luxury of experiential space… The other is in
experiential-led social living, where there’s a lot of interest in individuals
coming together, wanting to communicate, having a community, having
conversations and feeling connected… and coming into common social areas, to
get to know each other.”