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Everhome Suites Bozeman opened in May 2025.
ACME Hotel Chicago will become part of Hilton’ s new Outset Collection.
Bar at Ruby Louise Hotel Frankfurt.
and flourished even after the greatest threat it had ever had to confront: the COVID pandemic.“ When there is a pullback, we come back and set RevPAR records,” he said. Prior to the conference,
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Wyndham announced a new brand extension named Dazzler Select by Wyndham, which will target independent hotels in the U. S. considered to be in what Wyndham calls the“ lifestyle economy” space. |
Wyndham is not the only one with a new brand. Also prior to the conference, Hilton announced the launch of Outset Collection as part of its Lifestyle portfolio. Like Wyndham, it, too, will target U. S. independent hotels.“ When we launch a new brand, it’ s deliberate,” said Christian Charnaux, EVP & CDO of Hilton, adding that he sees a path to hundreds of hotels joining the collection because of the might of Hilton.“ Consumers don’ t see a hard or soft brand. They want the assurance of the system.”
IHG Hotels & Resorts has grown of late via acquisition. Earlier this year, it acquired Germany’ s Ruby Hotels, a micro-hotel brand. Last month, IHG made the brand available for franchise in the U. S.“ 2025 started with the idea of propulsion and we are optimistic about Q4 given the swell of activity in [ IHG’ s ] pipeline,” said Kevin Schramm, SVP of essential and suites brand development for America and Canada for IHG Hotels & Resorts.
Optimism might be abounding for brands, but for hotel owners, it’ s hard to be anything but pessimistic given the current state. It is something Choice’ s Pepper recognizes.“ The pain point is operating costs— insurance, property taxes, utilities, labor— owners are squeezed,” he said. On top of that, many hotels that deferred and were allowed PIP( property improvement plan) forbearance in the pall of the
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pandemic now need soft and hard improvements. The brands are less patient.“ A lot of owners need PIPs,” Pepper said.
“ If I’ m an owner, I look long term,” said Hilton’ s Charnaux, likewise agreeing that it’ s not getting any easier on the operating side.“ Where am I going to get the best returns on capital and flow through to cash-on-cash returns. I’ m thinking five to 10 years out.”
At the same time, lodging companies need to grow in order to prop up their stock prices. Most have tried doing this through conversions of independent hotels to their brands or conversions of existing branded hotels when they are up for relicensing or sold. Increasingly, Pepper said, brands are volunteering key money to an owner to“ make PIP costs more reasonable.” Choice, he said, uses key money on renewals because it wants the upgrades and to lock in the hotel long term.
He had some advice for investors, too.“ This is where you go out and buy,” Pepper said.“ Interest rates are lower. This is a buy opportunity and look at repositioning to another brand or upscaling it.” At the same time, he noted that now is the chance opportunity to build new considering the muted supply growth of the past three years.“ It will open in a couple of years when the market is back,” he said, and potentially be able to refinance at a lower rate.“ You’ ll be the newest in the market. You need fortitude to build in the downturns.”
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