Hilton is moving up a gear to densify its offering in the luxury and lifestyle segment . A few weeks apart since the start of the year, the American group began by entering into a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World for the integration of hundreds of luxury hotels into its distribution system and its program. loyalty. Then Hilton entered the glamping field with an agreement with AutoCamp, a high-end player in outdoor accommodation with its caravans and tents set in the middle of the great American spaces.
Alongside these partnerships, this heavyweight in the global hotel industry is also putting its hand in its pocket with the announcement in recent days of the purchase of the lifestyle brand Graduate Hotels from the AJ Capital fund, for nearly 200 million euros. . No doubt most business travelers will not have had the opportunity to come across this brand during their travels, apart from those involved in the academic world. Launched in 2014, the Graduate Hotels brand has indeed developed in a niche – large university campuses – near which it has installed its boutique hotels combining contemporary, willingly iconoclastic design with retro touches.
Since its beginnings near the University of Georgia in Athens and Arizona State University in Tempe, the brand now has around thirty establishments . Berkeley and soon Princeton, Oxford on both sides of the Atlantic – close to the University of Mississippi and the dean of British faculties -, but also Cambridge across the Channel: the Graduate brand, which will become the 23rd brand of the American group once its acquisition is completed during the year, can boast of glowing references.
Adding to Curio, Tapestry and Canopy, Hilton’s other lifestyle brands, this brand with a less academic positioning is encouraged to spread its know-how. “ With thousands of universities and colleges around the world, we estimate a potential market of 400 to 500 hotels for the Graduate brand ,” said Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta.