Many luxury hotels are first-class vacation destinations due to their luxurious amenities.
They often offer first-class food, spacious rooms and beautiful spaces in prime locations.
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Hilton (LDS) – Get a free report owns some of these lavish properties. These include, for example, the Waldorf Astoria Hotels in Beverly Hills, California, in Amsterdam and on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Hilton also owns several upscale but not quite luxury brands such as DoubleTree and Embassy Suites.
But now the hotel company wants to cater to guests who value value more than decadence.
In fact, on October 10, Hilton hosted the grand opening of its first new economy-style hotel in Mystic, Connecticut.
A Hilton hotel room in New York’s Times Square.
Image source: Hilton Hotels
Spark by Hilton is a new “Premium Economy” option
Spark by Hilton, the newest addition to its brands, had a moment in the spotlight.
“The launch of Spark by Hilton fills an open space in the industry by creating a new premium economy lodging option to meet the needs of even more guests and owners seeking value, quality and consistency,” Hilton said in a statement.
Cameron Sperance of The Points Guy reported on the grand opening on October 11th.
“We look at this brand through customer segmentation. The economy segment has a strong customer side, and we didn’t have a product,” Matthew Schuyler, Hilton’s chief brand officer, said, according to Sperance.
The new move is expected to attract more travelers to the company’s Hilton Honors network.
“Travellers win because Spark offers a more affordable entry point into the Hilton Honors ecosystem,” Sperance wrote. “While rates at Mystic Hotel this week range from $142 to $223 per night, more advance bookings show nightly rates are typically around $100 per night. Next summer, rates will generally be under $200 a night – a decent bargain for a Hilton-affiliated hotel in a coastal New England town during peak travel season.”
The new brand is being built aggressively
Spark hotels are expected to grow rapidly. When Hilton announced the new brand in January, it said it had had more than 100 discussions about proposed deals.
“Today there are 400. In addition, there are already more than 100 hotels where there are ‘hammers in the wall,'” said Alissa Klees, Spark’s brand director, according to The Points Guy.
Hilton expects Spark to play an important role in the company’s future.
“Hilton wins here because Spark is set to become a leading growth driver for the company at a time when not many new hotels are being built due to higher interest rates,” Sperance wrote. “Instead, companies are turning to conversions – offers where an existing hotel changes its affiliation to a new brand – to drive growth. Spark is a conversion brand and is expected to grow quickly.”
Chris Nassetta, President and CEO of Hilton, commented on the Spark debut.
“Hilton pioneered the hospitality industry as we know it today, and we continue to expand our portfolio as the needs of our guests and owners evolve,” he said in a statement in January. “The debut of Spark by Hilton builds on a tradition of developing world-class brands as we work to serve every guest, on every travel occasion, wherever they are in the world.”
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