Skift Take
Major hotel groups continue to be eager to collect lifestyle and luxury brands.
Hyatt is close to a deal to buy Standard International, the operator of the upscale The Standard Hotels, according to reports on Thursday.
Talks between Hyatt and Standard “are in advanced stages,” according to Bloomberg News sources, but “a deal could fall through.”
The companies didn’t immediately respond to Skift’s request for comment.
A source at Hyatt not involved in the talks but familiar with them told Skift that negotiations were ongoing, with a hoped deal signing before Hyatt’s planned earnings call on August 6. The talks hadn’t been finalized, and Hyatt has walked away from deals at the last minute if problems appear, the source said.
Since 2017, Sansiri, a luxury real estate property developer based in Thailand, has been the majority shareholder of Standard International.
“Hyatt seems to want to collect as many niche brands as possible,” said Alan Woinski, editor of Skift’s Daily Lodging Report. “Some would say this is to compete with Marriott and Hilton, which have the corner on brands in sheer numbers. I think Hyatt is trying to secure their own niche, focusing on accumulating non-traditional type hotel brands.”
It’s unclear if the deal will include the Bunkhouse Group of hotels, a brand of more affordable lifestyle properties that became part of Standard International in 2016 when the founder of The Standard Hotels, André Balazs, bought a 51% stake in the Austin-based company.
The Standard was created by Balazs as a nightlife center with a first boutique hotel in New York City. The company has since been expanding worldwide.
Its StandardX brand, with the world’s first StandardX Melbourne hotel set to open on August 8. The more affordable version of The Standard won’t have the flagship brand’s party vibe, such as an iconic Boom Boom Room nightclub. But it will have a restaurant and bar that it hopes set the local scene. Standard International had said it planned to expand the brand to Bangkok and beyond.
Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date
What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200)Â combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.
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