OPINION: NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Jumeirah’s entry into the upscale casual sphere presents opportunities – but also warnings

Jumeirah’s new ‘upscale casual’ four-star brand presents opportunities and warnings

H ospitality is always unendingly fascinating with operators keen to move with the times and appeal to different market segments – and making sure they are relevant, particularly to ‘millennial’ travellers, is one issue that keeps business development directors up at night.

News that Jumeirah plans to venture into the upscale casual arena with its Zabeel House brand is symptomatic of these changes and reflects a desire to broaden its business away from its internationally acclaimed five-star city hotels and resorts.

Neighbourhood, casual and discovery are definitely buzzwords in the hotel industry – in fact, they are inbox clichés. Most operators are at pains to stress their distinctiveness but when all the leading groups have at least one brand in this area then it inevitably raises questions about duplication and market appetite.

A quick Google search of ‘neighbourhood’ shows plenty of entries and some familiar phrases. Rosewood’s Pentahotels is a “design-driven, neighbourhood lifestyle brand”; IHG’s Indigo is positioned as a boutique neighbourhood brand; CitizenM is renowned for its sharp designs and “affordable luxury”; Hilton’s Curio Collection selects hotels with history and character; and Accor has a fast-growing trio in 25hours, Jo&Joe and MamaShelter. I haven’t even come to Marriott International yet, whose 30-strong portfolio of established and new brands provide so much scope that owners can pick the one to match their upscale-lifestyle-neighbourhood-design format, though some, such as Moxy, lend themselves more readily than others.

The quest for ‘discovery’ is understandable but it’s being over- egged; it presupposes everyone is visiting the place for the first time, or that we all need to be discovering new aspects of places familiar to us to be leading travel- enriched lives. Much of the pleasure we derive from travel surely lies in the familiar – knowing the hotel staff, the restaurants less-hyped, the short- cut streets, which save us money and time. In this day and age, who really has time to discover (that’s why we’ve had the 4 hour guide as a recurring section for so many years)?

We’ve seen the casual drift before in the F&B sphere, hotels rolling out more casual concepts as traditional fine-dining wanes. It’s not just other hotels that operators need to keep their competitive eye on; I really must get back to Club Vista Mare now the weather is decent, where you’re spoilt for al fresco flavours in one line.

So is there a danger in the next stage for ‘casual’ to cloak hospitality, fuelled by ongoing mid-market growth? The mid-market is no longer the isolated, cheap-and-cheerful sector it once was, but full of decent, affordable and attractive properties – which clearly has the potential to dilute upscale. If you’re going to enter this space ( in my eyes, a fluid one that’s really everything beneath five-star), you have to be crystal clear about pricing, product and service.

I’m sure Jumeirah have done their homework and I look forward to seeing the first design-led hotel. But they know there is more to success than putting a new name above the door (sadly, in the case of their last lifestyle venture, Venu, it didn’t get to that stage) and establishing the Zabeel House name won’t happen overnight. It’s too early to say whether the brand will be the one that drives the company’s growth – the fact they have five contracts already signed may be an indicator – or become a sideline to the core fivestar business. Either way, if Marriott International can do it, then Jumeirah shouldn’t have too many problems.

The backdrop to all these changes is the constant change in technology; you can walk out of Amazon’s store in Seattle without reaching for your wallet or purse. The hotel check-in and check- out experience continues to accelerate as more services go mobile. A butler used to be someone in a starch shirt, now they’re on instagram.

The convenience drive is fine but it’s a thin line between personalisation and impersonalisation. We use our phones to make life easier but let’s not lose sight of social interaction, or to put it bluntly, forget our manners.

The mid-market is no longer the cheapand-cheerful sector it once was, but full of decent, affordable and attractive properties