Hyatt has today announced details of its newest hotel brand. Keep in mind that now more than ever, hotel brands are being created for prospective hotel owners, rather than for hotel guests, as these all kind of run together, if you ask me.
Continue reading: Hyatt Select: Yet Another New Limited Service Hyatt Brand
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It seems like this is a Hyatt Place without the bistro. Likely because owners don't want to pay for a bartender or a cook in the kitchen. So, basically the same caliber of hotel but with even fewer staff.
Before the pandemic, many Hyatt Place properties had a dedicated bartender or cook. Now, five years later, the front desk agent is often both the bartender and the cook.
I also laugh at the renderings. Even many Hyatt Regency properties don't have slippers. The idea that a Hyatt Select will have slippers is absurd.
@Lucky don't they also spin off new brands to not encroach on the territory of someone who has rights to say, a Hyatt Place? Don't these new brands also anger some current owners as a workaround to take some of their most loyal WoH customers?
I'm all for it if it expands Hyatt's footprint into more places. Looks like fine for the same kinds of stays I'd book at Hyatt Place or Hyatt House for.
I bet they don’t provide the jacket in the rendering either. So those are probably slippers the guest brought from a Park Hyatt, lmao
Looks like a gimmick to target corporate business travelers. Renderings look exactly like newer Hyatt Houses / Hyatt Places but with a light grey and white color palette instead of charcoals, browns, and black.
As I said earlier, it appears to be Hyatt Place without the bistro (which requires a kitchen and extra staff) and almost certainly with a reduced breakfast offering. Basically, they'll have a market with selling soft drinks, beer, and wine with pre-made sandwiches or salads made by a contractor. Housekeeping will almost certainly be weekly. So, probably half the staff required.
Generally, only an owner of a high-end brand has a geographical franchise.
To me, this tells me that (1) nobody wants to build a Hyatt Regency these days and (2) Hyatt Place's brand standards require staffing at a level too expensive for cheap owners.
They are telling you everything you need to know about the brand. For consumers, it is a Hyatt Place in most respects. For owners, it is something that does not require a new build. It can be (re-)flagged cheaply, the properties can get the brand premium in terms of cost, but they don't have to pay much for staff. Every new brand announced lately is billed as "conversion friendly," which just means a furniture swap and a new coat of paint on an already existing limited service property (or office space).
I guess with the latest round of category adjustments, they needed something to be slotted into the Cat 1 bracket, as there isn't much left.
The efficiency of Hyatt Select probably requires the guest to supply their own slippers for the stay.
Why do they refer to the size of a hotel as a number of "keys" rather than a number of "rooms?"
Some handy translations:
"Flexible Prototype" = Yes, you CAN convert that old Econo Lodge into one of our tasteful options: Small gray box, medium gray box, and gray box with a dank firepit by the door.
"Efficient Staffing Models" = No front desk, mandatory apps, and some underpaid and frightened contract custodians so fresh to America that they still smell like a turnip truck.
"World of Hyatt Loyalty Program" = Worthless scrip we throw at people when the air conditioner catches fire at 2am.
"Hot and Cold Breakfast Offerings" = The orange juice is still frozen solid, but the pitcher of milk is room-temp.
"Self-serve Grab-and-Go" = A vending machine.
"Beer and wine" = A FANCY vending machine.
"Modern, Comfortable Rooms with Workspaces for Productivity" = Six random green lights that can't be switched off, a rainfall shower head mounted so close to the wall it only cleans your toes, and a mini-fridge with a top surface that's almost flat enough to be a laptop desk.
BONUS: "Attuned to Local Hotspots" = You'll hear the nearby Interstate, be blinded by the truck stop neon, and fret all night that the Waffle House employees will break into your rented Altima in the parking lot.
It's basically Hyatt's answer to Hampton Inn, La Quinta, Comfort Inn, Fairfield Inn, etc
I've long said Hyatt's Hyatt Place was basically the offspring of Marriott's Fairfield and Courtyard. But Hyatt Place has a kitchen and higher labor costs because you theoretically need a bartender and/or cook, though many properties now cross-train front desk agents to do all these jobs. A stripped-down Hyatt Place without a bar or kitchen means owners can employ fewer workers while still getting some F&B revenue through outsourced salads, wraps, etc. But I'm skeptical that whatever is brought in will be better than the gas station.
Yeah, this is basically Hampton by Hyatt. The "limited equipment for breakfast" describes a Hampton breakfast (convection oven and a coffee brewer for the urns is basically the only required kitchen equipment).
As I have heard/read from some commentary, this seems to be another reflection of that the actual customer of the hotel chains are the hotel operators, not the hotel guest.
Hyatt (and every other brand) is incentivized to open as many new properties as possible because that's how they get paid, and what the hotel operating companies (which are not Hyatt themselves) want. So to create more opportunities to open locations, they have to dip into these dregs of low end hotel formats.
Aside from irrational loyalty, this is just another box hotel. Do you really want to go out of your way to stay there?
Just for fun, I asked Claude about their description of the brand:
"It sounds like AI could have generated that marketing description. It has qualities often found in AI-generated text for hotel brands:
Generic phrasing with hotel industry jargon ("upper-midscale," "transient brand")
Vague benefits without specific details ("meet the needs of modern travelers")
Formulaic structure that balances traveler benefits with owner benefits
Somewhat stilted language that lacks a distinctive voice
This description follows a common template for hotel brand positioning statements, combining traveler value proposition with business model benefits. While a human marketer could certainly write this, the generic quality and efficiency-focused language is characteristic of AI-generated hotel marketing copy.
Would you like me to suggest how this description could be improved to sound more distinctive and authentic?"
Yikes! I guess you don’t like Hyatt? Is there a hotel brand that gets it right for you?
do we think the front desk associates will say “I hope you have an efficient stay with us?”
maybe at the locations in Germany
It's not Hyatt I dislike. It's the endless corporate drone-speak used to depict blatant cost-cutting as some sort of hip and edgy business transformation.
Interest rates are too high to justify new construction (except for economy extended stays in Texas), so all the hotel companies are competing to rebrand all those first-generation Fairfield’s, Hampton and HIEs that need massive updates to maintain their franchise. That’s what Spark, Garner, Baymont and whatever Marriotts new brand are for.