Blackstone Is Back Buying Hotels in Japan: Top Stories in Hotels

Here are the top stories from Daily Lodging Report in the past week. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.

Blackstone Is Back

Blackstone is once again looking to acquire Japanese real estate to capitalize on high international interest in property in the nation. The world’s largest alternative-asset manager has several bids out. Hotels are said to be at the top of their list, Bloomberg News reported. Japan still has rock-bottom interest rates, making it one of the few developed markets where income from real estate assets still exceeds the cost of borrowing — attracting foreign investors. 

IHG Debuts New Brand Garner

IHG Hotels & Resorts announced the launch of their midscale conversion brand Garner – an IHG Hotel. IHG said owners had expressed their desire to work with a high-quality conversion brand at a lower price point, so IHG developed Garner. The brand will be ready to franchise in the U.S. by September, with the first hotels to open by year-end. (Details at Skift.)

Hyatt Picks Spots for New Brand

Hyatt Hotels Corp gave an update on Hyatt Studios, its latest select-service brand. It said it had executed franchise agreements for the first locations in Mobile, Alabama, and Marysville, CA. Hyatt Studios is Hyatt’s first “upper-midscale” extended stay brand in the Americas.  

Hilton Cleans Up

Hilton is bucking the trend and will begin offering automatic daily housekeeping at its luxury, full-service, lifestyle brands, and its Embassy Suites hotels worldwide this fall. Other brands within the U.S. and Canada, including extended-stay hotels, will receive automatic service every other day. (A View From the Wing first reported the news.) Since July 2021, only Hilton’s luxury brands offer automatic daily cleanings and most properties were on-demand.

OYO Boosts Quality

OYO said that its Super OYO-tagged hotels have surpassed the 1,000 mark, spread across 140 cities in India. The category was launched in December 2022 with 200 properties across 70 cities to recognize hotels that provide the most consistent and high-quality customer experience. 

OYO expects to add another 1,500 hotels in this segment by the end of India’s 2024 fiscal year. The Super OYO category constitutes the majority of the OYO hotels, with over 26%, followed by OYO Rooms at 22% and Collection O at 19%. Hyderabad has the highest number of Super OYOs at 82, followed by Bangalore and Kolkata at 61 and 55, respectively.