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HOTELS Interview: Healthy goals for Even Hotels

时间:2015-06-19 来源:行者旅游 TripMaster.CN 官网:http://www.tripmaster.cn

Holistic wellness is one of the hottest topics in hotels today, so it’s hardly surprising that IHG is looking to capitalize on that trend with its new Even Hotels brand. First announcedthis past February, Even Hotels made headlines again earlier this week when IHGpublicized the signing of the brand’s first property — a new-build hotel in New York City.

  Even Hotels has a number of healthy goals, which HOTELS discussed with Jim Anhut, IHG’s senior vice president, Americas brand management, during this week’s 2012 IHG Americas Investors & Leadership Conference.

Jim Anhut
Jim Anhut

  HOTELS: Talk about the significance of the first property signing — particularly in New York City — and what it means for the brand in a larger sense.

  Jim Anhut: A project like the 44th Street deal in New York is a big announcement, but it also helps secure a really solid foundation for the brand for a few reasons. That deal is new-build. It is an investor group that we have a great relationship with (CWC Inc.) and is willing to build with their capital, and they’re allowing us to manage the hotel. I guess you couldn’t triangulate better than that. And then, it’s in a really great market.

  HOTELS: Was the vision always to have the first property announced be in New York City?

  Anhut: There are a lot of ingredients that go into the positioning of the brand, one of which is where you put it — what cities do you put it in, what submarkets do you put it in and ideally what street corner would you put it on. For this brand, we want to be in markets that, one, have a lot of our customers there, and there are a lot of our customers that travel to New York City. But we also looked at other markets; the distribution strategy is New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco. That’s kind of where we started. Call those the primary locations and where we want to fan the brand out from. We love the fact that those are pretty big media markets, and we also love the fact that we’ve got a pretty sizeable footprint in New York City already, and we have a lot of our customers that go to New York City. So there’s that opportunity to cross-sell; there’s that opportunity to penetrate that market pretty quickly because of our knowledge of the market and the number of reservations requests that we have that come into a city like that.

Rendering of the Even Hotels property in New York City
Rendering of the Even Hotels property in New York City

  HOTELS: Do you expect announcements about other Even Hotels openings to come soon?

  Anhut: We’re in a bit of a quiet period right now for our third-quarter 2012 earnings, but we expect within the next handful of months that we’ll be able to talk some more about the next deals.

  HOTELS: I know the initial focus for Even Hotels is North America, but long term, does the brand have global potential?

  Anhut: It’s really a North America focus right now, but the foundation of the brand is keying off a very compelling consumer insight, and that consumer insight is not unique to the U.S. or North American traveler. This notion of maintaining balance, a more holistic approach to wellness while you travel is not unique to us. It’s a conversation that’s being had all over the globe, and we are a global company. When you think about stuff like this, you think very long range and its potential opportunity. But for right now, it’s important that we get the brand nailed and firmly planted and established in this region.

  HOTELS: When Even Hotels was first announced IHG committed US$150 million for capital expenditures. Has that commitment changed at all?

  Anhut: No. We will leverage off of IHG’s balance sheet. It’s important for us to commit capital to the brands. That demonstrates that we believe in it, and in an environment — especially in this region — that is predominantly franchised, your owners need to see that you’re committed to that. There’s nothing more profound than the balance sheet being put against something like that.

  HOTELS: In a broader sense, why is the time right for this brand?

  Anhut: As we accumulate data on travel habits, on consumer habits in general, on trends in general, this notion indexes very highly. When you build a brand, you don’t build it for the short run — it is an endurance race. So you first want to key off what appears to be a compelling consumer insight that has traction and durability, something you know is going to be out there a long time. This idea of a more balanced approach to travel isn’t going away.

  You ask why now — why not now? We’re in a great position as a company. The trend is relevant — it’s in the headlines everyday. It’s important to do it now.

  We also have an owner community that continues to want to grow with us, and I want them to grow with us. In some markets, it’s ready for a new product.

  HOTELS: Where you’d like to see Even Hotels five or 10 years from now?

  Anhut: We’ve said publicly that the idea is to have 100 or so signed in the next five years. That’s the development side of things. What I really want to do is five years from now have it be mainstream knowledge that this hospitality brand is helping me maintain my balance while I’m on the road.


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