Dual Branded Hotels Make a Huge Impact at a Smaller Cost
If you haven’t had the chance to work on a dual-branded hotel within the last five years or so, they are quickly gaining momentum in the marketplace as more developers are seeing them as a viable solution for their new construction. The extended-stay element of the hotel allows for the hoteliers to be more aggressive with their rates on the select-service side of the hotel. The properties have a shared site, however, the different hotel brands can vary here utilizing either the same staff and public area or two completely different public areas altogether. Usually, there is also a shared Entrance and Front Desk, however, Brands like Hilton and Hyatt do not allow these to be shared among the two different hotels as they feel each needs to best display it’s brand hallmarks.
As far as the Guest Rooms, they are prototypical to either brand and are usually split in half in the one building by a central elevator. Each brand is listed uniquely on all hotel booking sites and they attract different, unique guests to reserve the different room offerings at the hotel. Usually, you would see two or sometimes even three Hilton brands under one roof, however, development in downtown Chicago includes a Hyatt Place, Aloft (Starwood/Marriott), and a Fairfield Inn & Suites (Marriott). In this case, all three are located at one site, but they have three different facades, three different entrances, three different front desks, three different General Managers, and management staff, however, they share meeting space and maintenance staff.
Overall, the model of using a dual-branded hotel is much more cost-effective to the Ownership and Developers than creating two separate hotels. This model supports higher occupancy and lower labor costs, which is why they are gaining such popularity in the marketplace today.
