Bode and Drift Hotel Brands See Group Travel as Trend With Legs
Photo Caption: A penthouse room at the Drift brand property in Santa Barbara that opened in 2022. Source: TMC Group.
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Small groups, such as wedding parties, want to mingle, but most hotels don't make it easy. Meanwhile, vacation rentals often lack professional hospitality services. So many group travelers are seeking better lodging options.
TMC Hospitality has a theory about U.S. travel. It believes that more people are traveling in groups — for reunions, team meetings, and destination weddings — than before. But it also believes that the typical hotel today isn't aren't equipped with the amenities addressing these travelers' needs.
Since 2019, TMC Hospitality has invented, invested in, developed, and operated two hotel brands. Serving this group travel audience: the mid-priced Bode and the "four-star" Drift.
"They're very much catering to what we call 'social group travelers,' which are parties of three or more who are traveling as a family or friends or colleagues and who want the professional services and amenities and decor of a lifestyle hotel," said Philip Bates, managing partner at TMC Group and CEO of Bode. "We have multi-bedroom units with living rooms, balconies, or fire pit areas where folks can hang out and have coffee or dinner together."
The Bode and Drift brands are ca
