Skift Take
Smaller lifestyle hotel groups are no longer disruptors in hospitality, so they need to evolve beyond the oversimplified "boutique is better" message.
Is the lifestyle hospitality sector becoming the very commoditized product that its proponents have rallied against since the 1980s?
It feels that way. When every single brand leader for every single lifestyle hotel group is saying the exact same thing in an attempt to differentiate their product, then they’re not really differentiating their product.
Experiential. Authentic. Local. Understanding your customer. Individualized guest attention. Contemporary design. Chef-driven food, cute cocktails, social spaces, cool staff. We're better because we're not Marriott.
What lifestyle brand isn't repeating all of that?
At the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference this month, one session in particular suggested new insight into the future of the indie hotel sector. "The New Hospitality Lifestyle: Emerging Brands featured four senior execs with Equinox Hotels, Denihan Investments, SH Group (an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group), and onefinestay.
There were sparks of insight here and there, but overall you came away with the sense that something (other than anti-Airbnb rhetoric) is needed to inject some life into the lifestyle hospitality conversation.
For years, small hotel operators have positioned themselves as the scrappy innovator delivering true hospitality in the face of the legacy brands' uniformity. However, when compared to Airbnb, independent hoteliers are now the traditional incumbents in hospitality, facing pres
