PERSONALITIES
TMC ’ S
BATES follows new crowds
BODE , DRIFT BRANDS CATER TO EMERGING SEGMENTS PERFECT FOR POST-COVID TRAVEL .
By JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
Disruption has been the way forward for the past decade for many a maverick in the hotel world , and young entrepreneur Philip Bates ’ participation certainly follows that playbook .
Bates ’ offshoot of real estate investor and developer TMC Group is called TMC Hospitality , which launched in 2016 with two new brands , Bode and Drift . The group has additionally invested in and / or managed more than US $ 200 million of hospitality projects .
At the moment , TMC Hospitality has invested in four of its hotels and fully owns two . It has also signed two letters of intent for pure management contracts .
Bode , with two existing locations in Nashville and Chattanooga , Tennessee , has three more properties in the pipeline : Palm Springs , California ; Greenville , South Carolina ; and Savannah , Georgia . The brand is known for creating flexible spaces that blend the style of vacation rental homes with the comforts and conveniences of a boutique hotel .
Drift , with a spare and minimalist aesthetic , yet a vibrant and friendly demeanor , has openings in San Jose Del Cabo , Mexico Santa Barbara , California , and Nashville , Tennessee , on the horizon .
Bates has a background in finance as an acquisitions analyst at Barker Pacific Group and as a senior analyst at Colony . Shortly thereafter , he joined TMC America where he became their vice president of investments from 2012-2014 , leading seven equity investments into development projects .
HOTELS recently interviewed Co-Founder and CEO Bates , who partners with his brother David , to learn more about TMC Hospitality and get his take on the current state of hotel affairs .
HOTELS : Can you provide more specifics on how TMC Hospitality came together ? Philip Bates : We are avid life-long travelers and experience seekers . We anecdotally noticed a trend several years ago that we , our friends , family and colleagues were increasingly travelling together . In most cases , this meant booking an Airbnb or adjoining hotel rooms to accommodate our party size ( 3-plus people ) and neither experience was optimal . The reason for this trend was simple -- travel is better with friends , and the more friends you have , the more rooms you need and no one was truly catering to this market in a satisfactory manner .
We began to research and build data tools to track these travel patterns across the United States . After months of work , we realized that we were witnessing an evolution in hospitality and the emergence of perhaps the biggest blue ocean opportunity in the hotel market since boutique and lifestyle hotels entered the market decades ago . When this became clear to us , we sought to create a hotel platform that caters to this emerging segment with multiple brands at different price points and that was the birth of TMC Hospitality .
H : How is it an off-shoot of TMC Group ? PB : TMC Hospitality is an offshoot of TMC Group in that it was created by ( both concept and capital ) the executive team of TMC Group .
H : How do you separate responsibilities with your brother , David ? PB : David and I work together really well and organically separate responsibilities based on our respective skill sets and business needs . He actually runs a successful brain health startup now , but is still an active member on the TMCH board .
70 hotelsmag . com July / August 2021