Last year Hyatt completed a deal to buy the brands of Standard International, for an initial $150 million, with up to an additional $185 million over time as additional properties enter the portfolio. Earlier this year at NYU IHIF, Amar Lalvani president and creative director of Hyatt's lifestyle group appeared on stage to discuss the transaction
Speaking from the perspective of both a seller and buyer, Lalvani said that while The Standard is a strong brand that people love, his motivation for selling involved a variety of issues, among them the difficulty of opening hotels around the world and a lack of guest loyalty and a reliable distribution system, as well as an inability to scale.
“We built beautiful hotels, great hotels people love, but you need an engine to make them really successful, “Lalvani said. “We outgrew our infrastructure, because of the success we had from a brand perspective, so we realized that we needed a partner, got to know the Hyatt folks, and it was a great fit.
“For us, it’s a dream to have access to 56 - 57 million World of Hyatt members, Lalvani continued. “It allows us to do what we do and do it with more strength,” he added, noting that Hyatt has always played in the upscale, lifestyle, luxury categories and is relatively competitive, and has opportunities in their network to keep building on.
For Lalvani one of the benefits of Hyatt is that it is the smallest of the large players, so there are areas for introducing Hyatt in a new way and to build a network effect through The Standard brand. On the other hand, Lalvani said that Hyatt’s view of The Standard brand is that what we built, our guests and owners, and the expertise of our team adds value to the brand's ability to grow.
“So in addition to coming on board to continue to grow The Standard, Bunkhouse, and other brands in bunkhouse and other brands, they asked me and the team to take on the lifestyle brands that they had built themselves” Lalvani continued, noting that his conditions for moving over was that whole team stay together and to keep the creativity and autonomy needed to do what we do best—add value to the brands.
“My conditions meant it had to feel right for our shareholders to exit at that time,” he noted. “It had to feel right for our team to be able to continue to put forward the creativity and enjoy their work lives, because that's what made this company. It had to be good for our owners, at the end of the day, all those things had to be satisfied.”
All quotes taken from the NYU IHIF 2025 panel: ‘Transacting brands: Unpacking the dynamics behind the sale and integration of hotel brands'