Hyatt Hotels’ Bold Bet on the Midmarket


Hyatt studios Exterior daytime

Skift Take

Hyatt's growth strategy seems to boil down to this: build more roadside hotels, not just urban luxury complexes, in places where travelers need to be for practical reasons, without trying too hard to be hip.

When most people think of Hyatt Hotels, they think of either luxury hotels (like the Park Hyatt Tokyo in the movie "Lost in Translation") or urban business hotels (where your corporation's annual holiday party takes place).

However, Hyatt sees suburban hotels without the frills as a path to additional growth, moving beyond full-service hotels. They're quicker to build, cheaper for owners to run, and help fill out the map in places where Hyatt doesn't yet have a presence.

Hyatt reported a 25% increase in its select-service pipeline in the Americas over the past three years. It now represents over half of the group's total pipeline in the region.

The company debuted new brand Hyatt Studios a year and a half ago as its first foray into upper-midscale — underscoring the group's interest in moving "down the scale" toward more streamlined hotel concepts.

Hyatt is also fanning out from urban hubs to smaller towns. Its Hyatt Studios brand has hotels in the works in Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania; Madison, Alabama; and La Verkin, Utah.

To learn more, Skift spoke with Jim Tierney, a senior vice president of development, at this month's Lodgi