Ian Schrager Wants to Upend the Luxury Sector With Relaunch of Public Hotels
Photo Credit: Ian Schrager wants to marry some aspects of select-service hotels with the luxury sector with the relaunch of his Public hotel brand. Ian Schrager Co./Public
Skift Take
It is not the first time Ian Schrager has attempted to brand Public as the next big thing for hotels with its “luxury for all” mantra. But the pandemic primed the travel market where this kind of high-end, limited-service brand has a real shot at growth.
The “before its time” label may be a cliché, but the pandemic proved hotel and nightlife legend Ian Schrager’s Public hotel brand really was a concept people didn’t know they wanted.
Public isn’t new. Schrager first launched the brand with a Chicago hotel in 2011 and was claiming the brand would offer affordable luxury — similar to the “luxury for all” mantra he’s proclaiming ten years later. That property eventually rebranded under new ownership, and the hotelier opened a New York Public in 2017.
For the previous iteration of Public, Schrager touted the benefits of technology to cut down on human interaction in areas like check-in and check-out. The New York Public suspended operations last year during the pandemic, but Schrager relaunched it earlier this month with the same intention of showing a new side to luxury hotels. The timing may be just right to move ahead with his long-awaited growth plans.
“We’re in the final chapter of reinventing luxury
