Loews’ New OE Collection Aspires To Be the Thinking Man’s Lifestyle Hotel
Photo Credit: The teaser website for OE Collection illustrates the brand's tonal point of distinction. OE Collection
Skift Take
Loews Hotels sees an opening at the high end of the busy lifestyle hotel segment, especially for more mainstream consumers like those loyal to the Loews experience.
Loews Hotels officially launched its spunky new OE Collection last month, marrying the luxury and lifestyle hotel segments with what it called an independent spirit and culturally attuned mindset.
Scheduled to open in Q1 2016, the first OE Collection property will be the new 100-room Bisha Hotel & Residences in Toronto, owned by Canadian nightclub and restaurant operator, Charles Khabouth. No other OE hotels or destinations have been announced to date.
With so many lifestyle brands coming to market over the last year, the traditional hotel brand delineations are dying away. Five years ago, when consumers thought about a hotel brand, they visualized carefully prepared brand standards in terms of the physical delivery. That's not the case today with the new breed of lifestyle brands, where each hotel is positioned more as a one-off without any design commonalities whatsoever.
There are two different business models at play here. New flags like Hilton's Canopy, Ma
