SLS Marries Lifestyle With Luxury
By Adam Kirby, Associate Editor -- Hotels, 6/1/2007
Observers within the lifestyle and luxury hotel sectors are anxiously awaiting next year's debut of SLS Hotels, the brand being launched by nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian's SBE Entertainment Group. Le Méridien at Beverly Hills is undergoing a massive renovation to become the flagship SLS at Beverly Hills, which SBE Hotels President Arash Azarbarzin brashly promises will mark a paradigm shift in upscale lodging.
SLS at Beverly Hills, which will reflect the vision of renowned interior designer Philippe Starck, looks to bridge the gap between the 4-star "lifestyle boutique" fi eld and 5-star luxury properties. "There is a void in almost every city in America, that you cannot have the cake and eat it, too," says Azarbarzin, who previously helped establish W as the dominant mainstream boutique brand. "We want to create a hotel that has service similar to Four Seasons and the energy and vibrancy of a boutique hotel, with the element of choice-if a guest chooses to be part of the energy, they can be, but if they do not want to be, they do not have to be," Azarbarzin says. The hotel itself will certainly be a focal point for entertaining, but it will be markedly unobtrusive. SLS will emphasize its ties with off-site SBE-affi liated brands, offering guests preferred access to nightclubs and restaurants in Nazarian's celebrity-chic empire.
Marketing will be minimal, primarily word-of-mouth and will include some advertising in high-end media. New property rollouts are expected to occur about once a year, starting with major U.S. gateways like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. Resort destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico are also on SBE's radar. SLS flags may eventually end up in the Middle East and China as well, but that is a ways off. "We are going to start growing the brand here in the United States and get some economies of scale going before we branch too far out," Azarbarzin says. "We want to do it right and pick the right locations."
 Designer Philippe Starck and nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian want their SLS brand to be vibrant yet luxurious and sophisticated. |
There is no specific target demographic for SLS, Azarbarzin says; rather, the brand is designed to appeal to the psychographic of travelers who want a lifestyle boutique with more sophisticated service. "As the W customers are getting older, and they are getting to a point that they want a little bit more service and choice, this will be a natural progression for them, before they graduate to the St. Regis brand," Azarbarzin says.
Ideally, people in their 50s will be equally comfortable at SLS as people half their age, with emphasis on great food from celebrated Chef José Andrés, cool ambience, hip-yet-subdued music and calm lighting. Room rates will roughly split the difference between a given market's boutique and luxury prices, which in Los Angeles means about US$350. "We will be the highest price in the boutique world and the lowest price in the luxury world," Azarbarzin says.
The 297-guestroom SLS at Beverly Hills will be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts under its Luxury Collection umbrella (Starwood is reportedly interested in adding SLS to its stable of brands, and talks are ongoing) but any actual resemblance to W would be superficial at most, Azarbarzin says. "One of the directives we have from Starwood is to make sure this brand stands on its own. We are making every effort to make sure the look and feel of SLS has no common denominators to the W," he says. Still, SLS will, to some extent, embrace W's "whateverwhenever" mindset. "Our standards are not signed in blood. We will adjust them to you, as long as you want to do things that are within the letter of the law," Azarbarzin says.
SBE signed Starck to an extraordinary exclusivity agreement that runs into 2011 globally and extends all the way to 2020 for North America and the Caribbean. Often credited with helping launch the boutique hotel movement in the 1990s, Starck and Nazarian share a similar vision for how hospitality spaces should feel, and so the partnership has thus far proven easy and enjoyable, Azarbarzin says. The sensibilities and expectations of travelers have changed considerably in recent years, Starck says, and he relishes the challenge posed by the SLS concept. "What I am creating for SLS will be incredibly timeless, chic, bold and ultimately humane," he says, "designed only to bring happiness in an elegant way."
Finally, there is the obvious question: What exactly does the acronym SLS stand for? As it turns out, nothing-or, perhaps, everything. "SLS is not an exact acronym for anything in particular," Nazarian explains. "Most importantly, it is a name that will become synonymous with timeless elegance, intelligence, humanity, discovery and a completely novel guest experience."
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Hotels Marketplace
View All Blogs
