A Third Hospitality Model That Big Brands Have Essentially Ignored
Skift Take
Investment manager LaSalle is betting on Numa, a hotel startup. The deal suggests that some institutional investors are tantalized by a market segment that draws little interest from big brands.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.Hotel owners have long faced two choices: run independently or become franchisees. But a third path is emerging for owners of smaller, urban properties, thanks to startups such as Numa.
On April 27, Numa received a vote of confidence in its plan to build a third hospitality model. LaSalle, a real estate investment manager that's a subsidiary of major hotel investing adviser JLL, launched a $525 million (€500 million) pan-European strategy of aggregating branded travel lodging. Numa will run the properties as travel lodging.Numa, based in Berlin, belongs to a wave of similar startups.
Sonder, a U.S.-based startup, is the largest and recently went public.Life House is in a partnership with Kayak.Limehome is based in Germany and backed by Lakestar.Casai operates in Mexico and Brazil.Matsuri is growing in Japan.And a few others in the U.S., such as Placemakr, Frontdesk, The Guild, and Mint House.The model typically has a few parts.
The brand essentially "borrows" properties owned by investors, developers, and hotel operators.It runs the units as either licensed hotels o