SBE CEO Warns of the Wal-Mart Risk in Hospitality

Is it really possible for hotel companies to retain creativity or innovation the bigger they get? That's something the entire hotel industry seems to be asking itself these days, especially in the wake of a number of mergers and acquisitions — one of which was announced just this Monday when Hyatt broke news of its $480 million acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality. Another deal that closed this week was the one between lifestyle hotel, nightclub, and restaurant company SBE Entertainment Group and French hospitality company AccorHotels on Tuesday. AccorHotels paid $319 million for a 50 percent stake in SBE, and SBE will continue to be run independently by founder and CEO Sam Nazarian. SBE's brands include SLS, Delano, Mondrian, Umami Burger, Katsuya, and Hyde. Skift spoke to Nazarian on the day the deal closed, and while he was very optimistic about the future of SBE's new joint-venture with AccorHotels, he also expressed some concerns about the hospitality industry overall.