Hilton Worldwide announced the appointments of three company veterans within its all-suites and Curio brands to lead initiatives including consolidating the all-suites brands’ support and leading aggressive growth for Curio.
Alan Roberts, formerly vice president of brand performance support for Embassy Suites, is now global head of the brand; Rick Colling, most recently VP of brand performance support for Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites, becomes vice president of brand performance support for all suites, which includes Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites. Mark Nogal, formerly regional head of focused service brand management for the EMEA region, is now global head of Curio. Bill Duncan will continue as global head of all suites, and Adrian Kurre will continue as global head of Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites.
Suites brands
Growth is a priority for all three suite brands, which together have a global footprint of 750 properties with 530 signed contracts for hotels in development. Embassy Suites, which the company says has the largest upper upscale pipeline in the U.S., has 48 hotels in its pipeline totaling more than 9,700 rooms. Home2 Suites, the fastest-growing Hilton brand by rooms year over year, has 340 hotels and more than 35,300 rooms in its pipeline; and Homewood Suites has 142 hotels/more than 16,000 rooms. By year-end, the three brands will have opened about 100 hotels, with 150 more to open next year.
Embassy Suites, a full-service upscale brand, has developed a model for the Middle East and announced a deal in March for Embassy by Hilton Riyadh King Fahd Road in Saudi Arabia. Slated to open in 2020, it’s aiming up – a 4-plus or 5-star property with more upscale finishes and a slightly different approach. The property will offer the evening reception that is standard in the Embassy Suites brand, but it won’t offer another standard, complimentary breakfast, Roberts said.
The brand will also make its debut in China in 2019 with a 300-room Embassy by Hilton Bo’ao. The brand is scouting Beijing and Shanghai as well. The tweak in that country will be in F&B, Roberts said, in offering both Asian and Western restaurant options.
Between the ages of some Embassy Suites properties – the brand is about 30 years old – and acquisitions, the brand is going through what Colling called a “very impactful renovation cycle,” and Homewood is in a similar situation. Changes at Embassy include remodeling the original large atrium with its plant and water features to make it less of a “pass-through” space and more of a commercial opportunity.
“It’s going to be a whole new brand by 2019,” Roberts said, when 75% of Embassy Suites will have interiors that are six years old or less.
The strategy moving forward for the three suite brands is to consolidate support under one umbrella. “The biggest challenge with those projections is to create a sustainable model of support that can handle that kind of growth,” Colling said. “There are tremendous efficiencies when you bring the category together.” Those efficiencies include being able to address issues like renovation cycles and development as a group rather than individually.
Curio’s growth path
Curio, which launched in 2014 and currently has 24 hotels in the collection, is aiming to add from five to 10 new hotels this year, mostly in the U.S., and its first in China. He would like to continue to grow at that speed, “if not faster,” in coming years, but there isn’t a firm number in terms of a goal. “From our standpoint it’s kind of limitless but we’re going to be strategic in the hotels we’re bringing in,” Nogal said.
“We see opportunities around the globe,” Nogal said. “We’re not going to say no to a particular market.” Size isn’t a differentiator, he said – the smallest hotel in the collection, in Connecticut, has 32 rooms, and the largest, in Miami, has nearly 1,000 – but standing out as a unique property is. His priority is to finalize deals. He’s on the lookout for new additions to the brand, including in second- and third-tier cities, “where we can find some great iconic hotels.”
As for the merger of Starwood and Marriott, whose Autograph and Tribute portfolios together dwarf Curio, Nogal said, “From our perspective, it’s about continuing on with our course of business, building relationships so we continue to partner with great owners to bring more hotels in the system, and to continue to make sure that we’re successful in terms of our direction.”