Skift Take
Lifestyle brands often lose their appeal when global companies take over. But Accor seems to recognize this in creating a standalone entity with Ennismore to maintain cool factor while building a global reach.
Accor and Ennismore’s combined lifestyle division isn’t meant to flood the world with trendy hotels.
But it will show there is a way to expand the lifestyle hotel sector without losing the components that make these venues so appealing to travelers, say the two men who will lead the new entity.
Ennismore, owner of the Hoxton hotel brand, and Accor, owner of lifestyle brands like Delano and SLS, announced Tuesday plans to combine their lifestyle brands into a combined entity that will retain the Ennismore name. Critics chided lifestyle brands like Kimpton and Thompson hotels in the past for losing some of their appeal after linking up with global brands like Hilton and Hyatt.
Ennismore, however, sees a way to expand with Accor while retaining style.
“Of course, there’s a natural tension between creativity and authenticity and scale,” Ennismore founder and CEO Sharan Pasricha told Skift. “We acknowledge that and understand that, but that’s what makes us good partners because that tension is going to be essential and the crux of this joint venture.”
Accor showed signs in recent months of just how important lifestyle hotels are to future growth. While lifestyle hotels comprise about 5 percent of Accor’s collected fees currently, the combined Ennismore makes up 30 percent of the development pipeline fees.
The Paris-based company announced plans in September to create an independent lifestyle division, something Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin later explained at Skift Global Forum as vital in working with certain lifestyle operators.
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