The extended-stay segment might be considered a unique animal, but its performance begs to be considered the king of the jungle. Understand why and understand who the leaders are who are driving the trends.
Hilton Worldwide's room-selection initiative is vindication for fading startup Room77, which sought to get hotels to adapt the feature, but met resistance. Guests will want additional room intelligence, including images, ratings and amenity information.
Hilton needs to offer its loyal guests and hotel owners the same opportunities as those provided by other major brands and Curio is its solution to increased interest in local, cultured lodging options.
Every big chain needs a lifestyle brand, or so goes the thinking, but Hilton Worldwide will launch one this year with a twist, going after a broader market segment with a lower-priced brand.
Getting independent hotels that compete against one another and have various agendas to cooperate in a loyalty program such as Stash Hotel Rewards has its built-in challenges. However, despite the myriad obstacles, there is a market need for such a program.
For a company with few physical assets, Airbnb demands a high value for its listings. But this value reveals more about how the lodging economy is evolving more than it tells us about what the sharing economy leader is really worth.