Transforming Hospitality Design: Dual-Branded Hotels

Dual-branded and even triple-branded hotels are on trend in the hospitality industry, changing the landscape of hotel development. Sharing a common footprint isn’t the only thing dual-branded hotels have in common. They also capitalize on shared back-of-house operations, amenities, and, in some cases, even employees. It’s no wonder they are suddenly dominating and transforming the hospitality business.

In August of this year, Hilton, which has opened 85 dual-branded hotels and has several more in the works, took brand collaboration one step further. The chain opened its first triple-branded property in Chicago. All under one encompassing roof, this unique hotel includes:

  • the 187-room Hampton Inn by Hilton Chicago McCormick Place
  • the 184-room Hilton Garden Inn Chicago McCormick Place
  • the 95-room Home2Suites by Hilton Chicago McCormick Place

Multiple brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt are pairing two or three of their hotels in one location to attract a more extensive range of customers while maintaining the individual brand experience their guests expect. The dual-branded model is attractive to developers and hoteliers alike, as they can develop two properties with different room-rate structures and different amenity packages that capture a wider segment of guests.

I expect we will see more dual-branded and triple-branded hotels going forward.

Designing for Dual-Brand Hotels

Designing for these types of hotels takes an expert design team with experience in hospitality and branded design. Dual-branded hotels share many of the spaces to cut down the overall footprint of the building; therefore, areas like meeting spaces, fitness rooms, and pool/patio spaces need to be designed to feature brand continuity and to appeal to various guest profiles. In addition, back-of-house amenities such as kitchens and laundry areas must be designed to handle the higher volume of use that comes from shared space.

When it comes to duel-hotels, design needs to be on-brand and appeal to a broader guest base.

Meeting and convention planners have their favorite hotels and brands, so combining the brands makes a location more flexible and offers multiple price ranges. However, the expectation is that their favorite brand will keep its signature style that they have come to love and expect. 

A dual-brand interior design team must keep the marks of distinctions that brand-loyalists expect.  

Housed in one large building that has a connecting core, the uniqueness of each entity comes from their separate entrances, lobbies, food and beverage offerings, and guest room designs. That means the design of the overall building must attract two or three diverse types of travelers.

JAI Understands Dual-Brand Design

Because JAI focuses exclusively on hospitality design and has over twenty years of experience, we are the right choice of design firms for dual/triple-branded hotels.  We have designed for many of the most frequented hotel brands and understand the unique stories and differences between each of them. We can easily design two or three hotels at one time on the same property with the same team of consultants, which saves our client time and money. 

We are currently working on a dual-brand hotel in Amelia Island, FL, that will include Courtyard and SpringHill Suites, both by Marriott. To give each hotel a distinction, our design of the Courtyard consists of a focus on the unique wildlife in that area, while the SpringHill Suites features the playfulness of the location’s surf. The two spaces are connected by a beautiful range of aquas and teals which are softer on the Courtyard side and bolder on the SpringHill Suites side.

Dual-brand and triple-brand hotels pose an exciting challenge for us as designers that inspires us to raise the bar in combining brand standards with more flexible offerings. At JAI, we work with the hotel guest experience in mind, and our commitment is always to create a beautiful design that makes a difference.