Hilton is on a bit of a hotel brand shopping spree. Recently Hilton announced plans to acquire Graduate Hotels, and now Hilton has unveiled plans to acquire NoMad Hotels. This is in addition to Hilton’s new partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
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NoMad Hotels joining Hilton Honors portfolio
Hilton will be acquiring a majority controlling interest in Sydell Group, in order to expand the NoMad Hotels brand from its existing London location, to high-end markets around the globe. This is intended to expand Hilton’s presence in the luxury lifestyle space. The financial terms of this deal haven’t been disclosed.
For some background, Sydell Group founder Andrew Zobler has created seven lifestyle brands, with hotel concepts including NoMad, The Line, Freehand, and The Ned. With this new NoMad Hotels partnership, Sydell Group will be responsible for design, branding, and management, while Hilton will lead development.
The NoMad Hotels brand will be fully integrated into the Hilton Honors platform, meaning it’ll be possible to book these hotels through Hilton channels, and it will also be possible to earn and redeem points. As before, all NoMad properties will remain independently owned.
As you can see, this deal currently only covers a single property that opened in 2021, but Hilton states that 10 properties are already in advanced stages of discussion, and Hilton hopes to grow this portfolio to as many as 100 properties. Hilton suggests that the NoMad London property “offers a ready-made platform for expansion in markets worldwide.”
Here’s how Hilton describes the NoMad brand:
Each NoMad hotel added to Hilton’s network will provide a uniquely local luxury experience that makes guests feel like residents of some of the world’s most sought-after neighborhoods. NoMad Hotels are both grand and intimate, fun and elegant, and classic and playful, creating a unique blend of luxury and lifestyle experiences throughout the stay with special touches like unique local art collections featured in each guest room.
Here’s how Chris Silcock, Hilton’s President of Global Brands and Commercial Services, describes this development:
“Adding NoMad to our growing brand portfolio will create new offerings for guests seeking unique luxury experiences in some of the world’s most desirable locations. By pairing an already proven brand concept that’s ready for expansion with the power of Hilton’s commercial engine, we are accelerating our ability to drive growth in the luxury lifestyle segment.
“Coupled with our recently announced exclusive partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World and our planned acquisition of the Graduate Hotels brand, Hilton is leading the hotel industry with the addition of innovative new luxury and lifestyle offerings that meet changing guest needs and add new opportunities for owners to join our system.”
My take on Hilton adding NoMad to brands
It’s cool to see Hilton’s recent investment in lifestyle hotel brands and other non-cookie cutter properties. You get the best of both worlds when you can get a unique hotel stay while still being able to leverage loyalty programs.
Now, this is definitely an unconventional hotel acquisition. As you can see, Hilton acquiring a controlling stake in NoMad Hotels won’t drastically expand Hilton’s portfolio overnight, as we’re talking about a single hotel as of now. NoMad has actually shrunk over time, with both NoMad Los Angeles and NoMad New York having been rebranded. For that reason, I’d be fascinated to know the terms of this acquisition, because that doesn’t sound all that promising.
Is the NoMad London really such a special property and does it have such name recognition that it’s worth building an entire brand around it, rather than Hilton coming up with its own new lifestyle brand?
I suspect the major motivation here is that Hilton has historically lagged competitors when it comes to having a premium lifestyle brand. Hilton doesn’t have anything between LXR and Curio Collection, to compete with brands like Hyatt’s Andaz and Thompson, Marriott’s W and EDITION, etc. I think this is intended to be the answer to that.
Now, it would be super cool if this deal included some of the other brands that Zobler is behind. However, they don’t all belong to Sydell Group anymore. For example, The Ned was acquired by Soho House, so obviously isn’t part of this deal.
Lastly, up until now, NoMad Las Vegas has belonged to MGM. We should find out soon how that’s rebranded, since it will no longer be a NoMad property.
Bottom line
Hilton is getting a controlling stake in NoMad Hotels. That means the NoMad London will be a Hilton Honors property as of later in 2024, and the goal is to grow the brand to up to 100 properties over time. It’s always nice to see the major global hotel groups add more independent, boutique properties, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops.
What do you make of Hilton acquiring NoMad Hotels?
I really like the NoMad brand. It's always felt refreshing and defined both in London/Vegas/NY when it operated. Keen to see it scaled.
I hate the term lifestyle brand. I associate it with people being douchy.
No, I’m not a kid of that Ned. He used a Lifestyle brand contraceptive.
Good news. Will be interesting to see how the brand develops/expands.
will NoMad las vegas be included? that was developed by MGM in partnership with Sydell but seems to be more in the MGM operating system these days. very confusing to have a NoMad hotel that is using the same brand but is not a part of the brand...
Bloomberg is reporting that NoMad Las Vegas is excluded from this deal and will be rebranded.
Is Freehand part of this deal?
"Hilton doesn’t have anything between LXR and Curio Collection, to compete with brands like Hyatt’s Andaz and Thompson, Marriott’s W and EDITION, etc."
Granted theres only a few of them, but I always thought LXR was basically the same as Andaz/Thompson.
LXR is more akin to Marriott's Luxury Collection than Andaz/Thompson.
To everyone asking about what makes a "lifestyle" hotel, I would say it is pretty simple - rooms tend to focus more on contemporary design, a big focus on the bar, restaurants and nightlife (often that appeal to locals and not just hotel guests), less focus on stuff like conference rooms / meeting space, business centers and lounges, etc. Focus is more on fun/play...
LXR is more akin to Marriott's Luxury Collection than Andaz/Thompson.
To everyone asking about what makes a "lifestyle" hotel, I would say it is pretty simple - rooms tend to focus more on contemporary design, a big focus on the bar, restaurants and nightlife (often that appeal to locals and not just hotel guests), less focus on stuff like conference rooms / meeting space, business centers and lounges, etc. Focus is more on fun/play rather than work (Marriott, Hyatt Regency, Hilton, Westin) or "luxury" (St. Regis, Ritz Carlton, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria, etc). Quintessential lifestyle brands are Andaz, W, Edition, and probably Thompson among the branded companies. The closest Hilton has is Canopy, which doesn't quite fit the bill. An expanded NoMad definitely would quality.
The Ned is owned by SoHo House. Sydell and SoHo House started off as co-owners but Sydell no longer owns it.
'Lifestyle brand' is such an empty, vacuous term.. it liiterally has no actual meaning.
I agree, for those of us who don't work in hotel branding, could Ben please define "lifestyle brand" and just use the definition instead of the term going forward?
Hmm... I guess at one point, NoMad had a few hotels... but NoMad in Manhattan closed permanently, and it seems like the NoMad in Downtown LA is nowhere near reopening. I am guessing this brand had more presence a few years ago when all of these properties were open. Hilton has talked about a "lifestyle" brand for years (in the same vein of W, Edition, Andaz) and I guess this fits that bill, so not...
Hmm... I guess at one point, NoMad had a few hotels... but NoMad in Manhattan closed permanently, and it seems like the NoMad in Downtown LA is nowhere near reopening. I am guessing this brand had more presence a few years ago when all of these properties were open. Hilton has talked about a "lifestyle" brand for years (in the same vein of W, Edition, Andaz) and I guess this fits that bill, so not sure what they get out of this versus a new brand they make up on their own at this point. I wonder if this really is their "lifestyle" brand or if they have other stuff they will launch as well.
NoMad NY reopened as a Ned and NoMad LA reopened as Hotel Per La, which is now part of Marriott's Autograph Collection