Rivalries Between Boutique Hotels Heat Up in College Towns
Skift Take
Graduate Hotels has grown to 22 hotels in college towns in six years. Now it intends to face down new competition by branching out to larger urban markets where it can continue to appeal to people involved in universities but also attract other clientele.
Ben Weprin, founder of the boutique Graduate Hotels chain that launched in college towns in 2014, had a specific number of properties he wanted to have waving the brand flag by 2020. That number was 20.
Graduate Hotels has achieved that, even in the midst of growing competition from other boutique brands and even larger hotel conglomerates such as Marriott International and Hilton that realize the value of appealing to a college campus' captive audience.
The first Graduate Hotel opened in Athens, Georgia near the University of Georgia. Subsequent properties have been introduced in college towns such as Oxford in Mississippi, Lincoln in Nebraska, and Tempe in Arizona. Weprin’s AJ Capital Partners develops Graduate Hotels.
So what’s next for Graduate Hotels? The plan for the independent brand is to graduate to larger cities where they can appeal to not just prospective students, visiting parents, alumni, professors, and patients at on-campus medical facilities.
While the company intends to always situate its hotels near college campuses, Graduate Hotels President David Rochefort said the brand can appeal to a wider audience.
The company is looking at about 100 markets to enter, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. It hopes to open more than one hotel in New York City. There are a
