Hilton plans to expand further into the lifestyle space with
two new brands.
During the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday,
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta told analysts that the company expected to
unveil a new “upscale lifestyle” flag sometime in the next six
months.
“I would describe it as a [step] above Hilton Garden
Inn, for a more urban or mixed-use, higher-end development opportunity,”
said Nassetta. “We’ve already soft launched it with our development
community, which we would typically do before a public launch. The reception
has been spectacular.”
Nassetta said the upscale lifestyle brand could scale
easily, with potential to grow to “hundreds” of locations globally
long-term.
The second brand is a “luxury lifestyle” concept that
is still some time away from an official launch.
“I think in the next year we’ll probably do one [new
brand], with luxury lifestyle at some point in the next several years,” he
said. “With the list that we have and these two others, that would be 19
brands. That is plenty of brand bandwidth for us to continue growing indefinitely,
given that we’re just getting started with some of these brands in many
destinations around the world.”
Hilton is relatively underrepresented in the lifestyle
segment, with the company currently categorizing its Canopy by Hilton brand as
its sole lifestyle offering. The first Canopy by Hilton hotel opened in
Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2016, and the brand has since expanded to 10
locations worldwide (the 10th Canopy is opening next week in Columbus, Ohio).
For the second quarter ended June 30, Hilton reported that systemwide
revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 1.4%, which the company said was
driven by increases in average daily rate and occupancy.
Second-quarter revenue rose roughly 8.4%, to $2.48 billion.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
