quick shot
Standard CEO Amber Asher is one of the smartest people in hotels. But The Standard International has so much going on, we wonder if the company can handle it all.
Sean O’Neill
international standardthe hotel company behind standard hotels Y The Peri Hotel — and majority owner of Bunkhouse House Group — it’s taking a lot these days to learn about CEO Amber Asher’s aggressive expansion plans.
In 2019, the company had 14 hotels with some 1,500 keys. By the end of 2023, their goal is to have 25 hotels and around 2,500 keys across three brands. That’s a growth of about two-thirds.
The company began 23 years ago when businessman Andre Balazs launched The Standard near the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in Los Angeles with the help of endorsements from stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. The brand, with an upside-down logo, helped popularize the brand-name boutique hotel trend and has since grown to multiple locations. Balazs retired from the company in 2017. The company has been majority owned by Sansiri, a Bangkok-based luxury real estate firm, since 2017, when it acquired a 30 percent stake, which increased to around 59 percent. in 2019. [UPDATE: This article originally said Sansiri was a majority owner from 2019.]
I spoke to Asher for an update. The Standard has a line of growth internationally and in the Americas.
Currently open: Standard Hua Hin Thailand and Standard Bangkok. Mahanakhon; Standard Ibiza from Spain; and the two US properties in New York and one property in Miami Beach; one in London; one in the Maldives. The pipeline includes The Standard to open next year in Singapore across from Shangri La. Properties are being developed in Austin, Brooklyn, Mexico, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon and Dubai. There is a new project in Pattaya, Thailand. A team is doing business development work in Latin America.
Branded residential hospitality has been a hot topic for everyone from Marriott to Montage.
The Standard Residences as an independent non-hotel property is in progress in downtown Miami. In Lisbon, the new residences will be connected to the hotel there, and more than 60 percent are already sold.
The company’s Bunkhouse brand, where motels and hotels have between 20 and 90 rooms, is also growing.
Nine open Bunkhouses are located primarily in Texas, but also in California and Mexico. Next year, one will debut in Louisville, Kentucky, by May, and another in Mexico City by the end of the year. In early 2024, Bunkhouse will open two new properties in Houston. Others will eventually come to Fort Worth, Texas. [CORRECTION: Article has been updated for 2024 Bunkhouse openings.]The parent company would like to bring Bunkhouse to cities like London, Brooklyn and Bangkok. “We have been able to make quick conversions and create a higher-margin, high-touch lifestyle feel based on our model that works well in these locations. Asher said: “We’re going to bring all the Bunkhouses under one umbrella website,” Asher said. “That will give us an opportunity to build our customer base and also introduce loyalists to the Bunkhouse brand more easily.” operators and team members that we had at our corporate office,” Asher said. “We have obtained multiple additional properties. That speaks of the quality of our teams and how we can make conversions in short periods”.
The Peri Hotel debuted in 2020 with two properties in Thailand’s Hua Hin and Khao Yai with another on the way to appear in Bangkok in 2024.
Standard International is particularly interested in finding partners for new projects in the US and Latin America., especially a Standard in Mexico City.
“We really want our owners, developers and equity partners to feel proud beyond just profitability, although that is crucial,” Asher said. “Our four US properties, for example, are doing better than ever from both a revenue and profitability perspective thanks to the streamlined processes we’ve improved. But we’ve done multiple openings and seen our partners’ faces light up when they see what they’ve helped create.”
The company is also working on a technology project.
The Standard had attempted to create a HotelTonight-style standalone hotel aggregator mobile app called One Night, but the project fell victim to a pandemic. A “technological project” is being worked on and will be announced shortly.
Thailand has been a great growth center for the company, thanks to owner Sansiri.
He has a team of approximately 40 people in a corporate office in Bangkok who works to promote the company’s three brands regionally. They have explored new destinations such as Chang Mai, Bali and the Maldives. [CORRECTION: This story originally, mistakenly said Shanghai was a possible location.]
It is bold for Standard International to take on so many challenges at once. The most intimidating target may be their effort to expand the lifestyle, boutique hotel concept to half a dozen countries very quickly.
Operating the process to ensure that quality stays true requires being in tune with local needs and the latest trends. Everything could go crazy. “It’s not drag and drop,” Asher said. “Guests who know us in New York will wholeheartedly recognize us at our properties in Ibiza and Bangkok, but they’ll see a different design, different nightlife programming and the food may be different.” “We talk to communities of creatives before we go to a destination to find out what they need and how to bring relevant new offerings,” Asher said. “We have done the research to connect the threads between our audiences and collaborators there. For example, we have brought a Mexican-inspired restaurant to the top of Standard London and Standard Bangkok.”
The story was updated with two corrections after publication. I am sorry. I can be contacted at [email protected] or via LinkedIn for feedback.
Source: news.google.com