Hyatt Standard International Acquisition

World of Hyatt continues their quest for rapid expansion with their latest notable acquisition. While World of Hyatt has been a favorite award program and hotel brand of many, the biggest knock has always been their smaller footprint compared to the competition. They have fought hard to add new addresses, and increase the total rooms available in their network, over the last several years. Some bumps have been hit along the way, like the loss of the SLH partnership, but Hyatt has had more wins than losses overall. With this Hyatt Standard International acquisition that expansion continues and they are adding a very recognizable name to the portfolio. I assume this will add another brand for the brand explorer perk too!

Details Of The Acquisition

Today World of Hyatt announced that they were acquiring the Standard International parent company, which come with notable hotel locations like Standard Hotel London, Bangkok and High Line New York City.

Here are some details per the press release:

The transaction is anticipated to close later this year, subject to customary closing conditions.

With this transaction, Hyatt will form a new dedicated lifestyle group that will be headquartered in New York City. Led by Standard International's Executive Chairman Amar Lalvani, the lifestyle group will leverage Hyatt's best-in-class operational and loyalty infrastructure while assuming distinct leadership across key functions including experience creation, design, marketing, programming, public relations, restaurants, nightlife and entertainment. The new lifestyle group will be made up of the talented Standard International team as well as Hyatt colleagues – more details about the lifestyle group will be shared following the closing of the transaction.

The acquired portfolio will be 100 percent asset-light and includes management, franchise and license contracts for 21 open hotels with approximately 2,000 rooms…

You can read the full press release here.

What Hotels Will Be Added?

I did some digging into the locations that each hotel brand under the Standard International umbrella has currently, or is coming soon. Here is what it looks like:

• The Standard
  • High Line, NYC
  • Bangkok
  • London
  • Miami Beach
  • Hua Hin
  • Ibiza
  • East Village, NYC
  • Maldives
  • Singapore
  • Melbourne
• Bunkhouse hotels
  • Austin
  • San Antonio
  • Houston
  • San Francisco
  • Louisville
  • Todos Santos, Mexico
  • Mexico City
• Peri Hotels 
  • Khoa Yai, Thailand
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
• The StandardX
  • Bangkok
  • Melbourne
• The Manner
  • SoHo, NYC

Hyatt Standard International Acquisition: ToP Thoughts

While I would have loved to see more coverage in Europe with this Hyatt Standard International acquisition, I do think it hits a ton of high travel areas. I know I will now be looking at The Standard Bangkok and Singapore for a trip early next year. A lot will depend on how these hotels land on the award chart. Often times, when new hotels hit a program they are either over or undervalued (hello Thompson Madrid). That can present us with some opportunity if we jump on it early. Hopefully this integration doesn't drag on and on like the Mr & Mrs Smith properties did though.

An interesting part of this acquisition is Hyatt's apparent desire to keep The Standard's design / management team on staff. It is almost like The Standard team was a driving factor in this purchase. We will have to wait and see what the new lifestyle group comes up with.

Let me know what you think of the Hyatt Standard International acquisition over in the ToP Facebook Group.