LOS ANGELES — Nearly four years after selling its hotel brands and management platform to Accor, lifestyle hospitality pioneer SBE is returning to hotels in a big way.
And SBE isn't doing it alone.
The company's new hotel concept is being launched with support from Grammy Award-winning entertainer Marc Anthony, who SBE announced as an equity partner in early January, and the brand's co-partner Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. .
On January 22, SBE and Wyndham announced details of a concept they are developing under the tentative name “Project HQ Hotel & Residences,” touting the joint venture as a “smart lifestyle” concept.
“This is a four-star approachable lifestyle product,” SBE founder and CEO Sam Nazarian told Travel Weekly during the American Lodging Investment Summit here last month. he said. “The consumers we are trying to capture are those who are not tied to traditional hospitality. [including] Millennials, Gen Z, and some other people we've identified. ”
In addition to a more affordable price point, each property at the project headquarters promises travelers access to an attractive city center location, combined with culinary, nightlife and wellness elements. Nazarian said the concept will compete with brands such as CitizenM and Marriott International's Moxy.
Project HQ is also positioned as a “smart” proposition for owners and developers. This concept is designed to be easy to convert and scale with more flexible brand standards. The plan also includes the provision of branded homes.
Owners will have access to SBE's extensive portfolio of premium food and beverage brands, including Umami Burger and sushi concept Crispy Rice, as well as the company's existing relationships with celebrity chefs such as Masaharu Morimoto and influencers such as Matt Stoney. You will also be able to take advantage of relationships between
“F&B will be aligned with ADR. I think this is a new perspective for us,” Nazarian said. “We've never had Umami Burger in a hotel before, but now when the katsuya is too expensive, [an owner] You can also add crispy rice or Dani Garcia's Kasadani. This is truly the democratization of food, [reducing] Construction costs are high. ”
The project headquarters' pipeline includes plans for four to five properties in Europe and the Middle East, two to three in the Caribbean, five properties in the United States, several projects in the Middle East and one in the Caribbean. The project will include a residential component.
“We're also starting to focus on college campuses,” Nazarian told Travel Weekly's sister publication Hotel Investments Today, adding that the pipeline is about half domestic and half international, with a goal of ending in 2029. He added that the company plans to operate approximately 50 hotels in the coming months. He called this a “conservative number.”
What SBE partners bring to you
This rapid expansion capability, driven in part by Wyndham, is expected to significantly expand the scope of the project headquarters. Under this partnership, Project HQ Hotels will become part of Wyndham's Registry Collection hotel portfolio, and the new brand will also participate in the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program, which has 105 million members.
In terms of reach, the partnership between SBE and Anthony is also expected to have a significant impact.
“His level of connection to generations of communities, not just in Latin America but around the world, and his entrepreneurial instincts are unparalleled,” Nazarian said, adding that Anthony believes Latin American consumers He added that he especially understands that it is by no means a monolith.
“We hope to capture some of his audience and give them a place to go, not just with things like Taco Tuesday, but with travel and environments that they can actually relate to, which unfortunately many That's what American brands are doing, and it's unfair,''' Nazarian said. “He would say, for example, Argentines are very different from Peruvians, so it's important to properly differentiate that and gain loyalty.”
Meanwhile, Anthony called the move into the hotel space “fascinating.”
“It's an art in itself,” Anthony told Hotel Investment. “There's a lot to do. There's a lot to learn. And I'm not just sitting here because I'm the face of something. I'm sitting at the table.”
