S14 E09: Amar Lalvani, President and Creative Director, Lifestyle Group at Hyatt

[music] You're listening to the luxury item, the podcast on the business of luxury and the people and companies that are shaping the future of the luxury industry. Here's your host, Scott Kerr. Luxury Travel continues to surge and the lifestyle hotel segment is similarly thriving, driven by experienced focused offerings that appeal to a new generation of travelers. My guest on the luxury item is Amar L'Alvani, president and creative director of Hi-It's New Lifestyle Group, a dedicated division primarily focused on lifestyle hotels, including brands like The Standard, Thompson Hotels, Dream Hotels, bunkhouse hotels and others. Amar joined Hi-It in 2024 following its acquisition of Standard International where he served as executive chairman. At Standard Amar focused on creative initiatives, including the development and launch of the company's newest brands, The Standard X and the Manor, as well as leading the successful sale of the company to Hi-It last year. Amar began his career in hospitality over 25 years ago with Starwood Capital Group. He later collaborated with renowned hotelier André Balaz on notable projects, including the Chiltern Firehouse and the Standard East Village. He eventually led a group of investors in the acquisition of the Standard brand from Balaz, forming Standard International. Now leading the lifestyle group at Hi-It, Amar will play a key role in Hi-It's brand-focused organization and evolution. Welcome to the luxury item Amar. Thank you, great to be here. Yeah, thank you so much for joining me. I'm David as president and creative director of its lifestyle group last year following Hi-It's acquisition of Standard International where you were executive chairman since 2021. The company was on a roll launching this rebellious younger sister hotel brand, Standard X and Melbourne, Expander, you branded residences, footprint in Miami, bunkhouse hotels expanding into new markets. So why did Standard International decide to sell to Hi-It? It's a great question and it's, in fact, the reason is because of what you said. I think we were on such a role and there was such an excitement and enthusiasm from our team and from people all over the world to do more standards and to keep bringing standards to locations and grow bunkhouse. And so because, in fact, the brand, not so successful but was so interesting to people that I wanted to keep going and the team wanted to keep going. But the realities of the hotel world are we didn't have the infrastructure. So the way I think about it is we had a wonderful brand and a fantastic team, I think the best in the world, but we had outgrown our infrastructure. And the challenges with opening from Ibiza to the Maldives to Melbourne to Bangkok, it really was a stress on the infrastructure we had. So we really needed a global partner, a partner that had that infrastructure, that had reach, that had distribution in order to keep doing what we were doing. Yeah, and Hi-It itself has gone through a strategic transformation in recent years, including the introduction of five distinct brand portfolios. They have luxury lifestyle, which you had, inclusive classics and essentials. Could you explain the thinking behind Hi-It breaking into brand groupings and how it's supposed to improve engagement and loyalty with Yes? I think they, I'll venture to say they've learned a fair bit from us as much as we've learned from them. And in thinking through having the right product in the right place, meaning the right people where they are, you need to have specificity around that. I use our team as an example. People who've met our team, they're absolute, specialists is not the right word, but they're dedicated to the things that they love, whether it's art, design, fashion, culture, music. And in order to have great hotels the way we do them, you need that specificity. Now those things are different in the luxury space or different in the inclusive business. So you can't, the idea of generic one size fits all is over. It's been over for a long time. That's not where Hi-It was, but they've realized that meeting customers where they are and developing fantastic quality product for them necessitates the teams being organized in a way in order to be able to do that. And so how do this strategy help attract developers and owners? So we think about it. We have multiples of types of constituents. So clearly taking care of our guests and our, and our people coming into our, into our venues and our group business, making sure they're well taken care of they love what we do is of critical importance. The second big constituents is making sure that owners and developers love what we do. So the way we have this emotional attachment that we get to our guests, we want that same thing for developers. Because they're making the ultimate investment in building a standard hotel or a bunkhouse hotel or a top-s and hotel. So the more we can be excellent at what we do for our guests, goes hand in hand with what we being excellent for our development partners. And in your new role, you oversee the lifestyle group and Hi-It, which includes standard international and bunkhouse hotels, which you carried over with you as well as a number of other brands like Thompson Hotels, Dream Hotels, Joao De Veeve, and the Busy New, the Manor Hotel here in New York City, which we'll talk about in a second and some others. So how does the lifestyle portfolio of hotels position itself out there? Well, the first thing I would say is, I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't believe in what we were doing. I wouldn't believe in Mark Coplamazine's vision and the dedication to, to, to really building and nurturing and creating great brands. So first I had to believe in that, which I do. I also come at it from a fan of all these brands. I grew up in this industry for the last 25 years and although I was focused on originally building W Hotels and in standards since 2013, 2011, really. I actually have known Thompson forever since it opened in 2001. I was very friends with Jason Palmer and had been a big fan of that hotel. That is that original Thompson hotel is actually the Manor Hotel now. So things come full circle. So taking on the Thompson brand is out of a, I would say a stamp would a reverence for that brand. I was fascinated with women, Hyatt, Braden, Lodge Andas in London and then New York. And then JDV, he used to be called, I don't chip calmly for a long time, dating back to when he just after he founded that brand. So taking on these brands is kind of a, it's a real honor. It's a privilege. And when I think we bring to the table is a mindset. A mindset of really thinking differently, thinking creatively, thinking outside the box, doing things that haven't been done before. And so it's a spirit that we bring and a, a team that we bring that hopefully can take these brands to the next level. So since joining have you, you know, do you have a set of priorities that you're focusing on right now? There's so much good work to do. The priorities has been today really going out there and listening. And I think Hyatt does an extremely good job at this and Mark does a great job of listening and understanding before taking action. So the last six or seven months has been an enormous amount of travel to our offices around the world, to our hotels around the world. It's a meeting our teams to meeting owners and developers and really understanding it. The second order priority was to really get to the heart of what these brands are each one of them is all about. So that we can communicate that to our teams, to our development partners, to our design partners. And if there's any, I would say not to criticism, but if there's any area of improvement that we've been hired was the fact that they had a quad built some of these brands and acquired these brands, but had not yet gotten to the point some of some of it was interrupted by COVID. But to articulate the brands in a very clear distinct way that honors their history, but also takes them forward. So I've been working listening, learning and articulating is probably what I'm doing for the most part. So what does the pipeline look like over the next 12 to 15 months? Very robust. I'd some roughly 30 hotels over the next 18 months or 24 months or so. We can get the exact numbers to you, but there's a lot of stuff in the pipeline and some really, really fantastic hotels that the team and I are dedicated to and excited about. I think about next week I'm off to Brussels for the opening of the standard in Brussels, which is an interesting market. I actually have there for a couple of years, but we're very excited about that. It's interesting about that is it's actually going to be the first high at hotel at all in Brussels. So one of the things that attracted me to high it as a partner for us was that as amongst the big companies, they're the least penetrated in many markets because they're smaller, which actually creates a huge opportunity in terms of growth and in terms of helping us being allowed to help define what higher means in those markets. This is a great example of that that'll open as I said, it's open. I think it opened yesterday and I'll be there next week. We have a new on does the just opened or is opening the coming days in Miami, which I think will reset the tone for the on does brand that's right on mid beach in Miami. We have a beautiful property standard at Lisbon and on does the Lisbon opening both opening next year standard has residents associated with that. So it's an incredible pipeline of new hotels that we could be more excited about. We just open standard Singapore. So each one of these are remarkable landmark properties and it's just honestly it's a privilege to be to be part of it. There seems to be a red hot interest in lifestyle hotels. They're generally defined as a property run by a major chain that evokes a boutique hotel feel, you know, like tending to be more design forward and featuring food and beverages and integral part of the guest experience. There's reading that the lifestyle hotels are expected to make up 23% of hotel development pipeline worldwide by 2025 over the past decade lifestyle hotel average daily rates have commanded a significant premium over non lifestyle hotel average daily rates to why has there been a boom in lifestyle hotels. Well, there's there's a fairly long history. In fact, I would say the two people in my mind, any three the two or three people in my mind who started this this movement certainly in shrager Andre Belage who I used to work with who founded the standard brand chip conley who founded Thompson. So started JDV and Liz Lambert who founded the bank on cost hotels and very strong like to took these hotels those concepts of pretty W. I've had the privilege of working with alongside or in some in different capacities with all of these individuals and really what they did was come from outside of the industry and think about how to do things differently and they imagine that a hotel could be more than a hotel, that it could be a social gathering point, it could be a place that builds community, it could be a place that has nightlife and dining and so I credit a lot the people that came before me to start this movement and as I saw it as I see it today, the growth is from two standpoints. One is the guests who are looking for more who have higher expectations, you know, the idea that a hotel would have good design, that was a novel idea, the idea that it could have a comfortable bed, that was a novel idea, the idea that it could have a nightclub or a great restaurant, those were all at one point novel ideas. Those things are table stakes down somewhat taken for granted, so we get to get better and better and guest expectations are higher and higher because they're looking for those things. You hear a lot about people, especially the younger generations, spending more on experiences rather than products, all of that stuff is real, it's happening and you see it in the numbers that you quoted and then what comes from that is when there's a consumer demand or a guest demand, it comes from through the capital side, so owners and developers are looking at how to maximize the value of their real estate and doing something different and something special is a way to maximize value versus doing something that's a commodity and if you do it right, you take a place like the standard high line for example, you know, in 2015 that property did over 100 before COVID, about $100 million of revenue, which was like something like $2,000 per square foot of revenue, which is absolutely crazy, but you do that because you're creating exceptional experiences with people that come in the door. So if you do both those things, take care of the guests in an incredible way, give them those experiences, the returns then follow, then the developers come and do that and it says virtual cycle, which is life seen in the growth of these hotels. Do you think there are broader cultural influences that are driving the growth of lifestyle hotels? I do. I think, you know, if you go back about 10 years ago when we acquired bunkhouse hotels, which I fell in love with as a customer, as a guest, there were places that were considered secondary markets or tertiary markets and that was a city like Austin where bunkhouse was housed, where a place like Houston or a place like New Orleans or Minneapolis or Tucson, you know, or Boise like these places at that time, they did not have anything like what a bunkhouse was and then you saw this. What I think about is the democratization of culture and culinary and art and people moving and even if that part partially accelerated by COVID, people moving to places where they hadn't been so there's creative talent that was leaving the big cities and creating beautiful things all around the country. So I do think there's a cultural movement of people setting their expectations higher, people eating better, healthier, more quality, people appreciating design. So this kind of democratization of luxury and lifestyle is absolutely taking hold and I think that's feeling what you see in the growth in the market. Yeah, I mean, the demand for a luxury and lifestyle travel experience is continues to grow at an impressive rate. You know, some of it has to do with the increased number of high-net worth individuals. Well, at the same time, we're seeing increased appetite for experiences over material goods and younger generations are willing to spend more of their money on upscale travel or more experiences. How are the lifestyle group of hotels keeping its finger on the pulse of these trends and reimagining hospitality for the next generation of travelers? Well, I consider myself extremely lucky in what I've been able to have done over the years and the people that I've learned from and what I've always been able to do or tried to do is not really chase or actively keep my finger on the pulse for the sake of doing so, but just be in the flow of what's happening and to be to come at this from a guest's experience standpoint. So I think of one of my biggest weaknesses as I'm not a hotel operator, I never happened. One of my biggest strengths is that I'm not a hotel operator, I never have been. So everything I do, everything I try to create with the team is based around how a guest sees it, how a customer perceives it. So I take something like the manner which you mentioned before we started the conversation before we started recording the conversation. We created that last year and it came out of, I would say, my mind, but our team's mind in that what is what are we looking for that doesn't exist today? And I'm actually happened to be speaking with you, luckily, from a friend's boat in the Caribbean and I'm trying to get a little time away before the big trip. And what I found and I think you may feel the same is some of the best experiences I've ever had from a hospitality standpoint are not from a hospitality company, not even from a hotel. They're from staying at a great friend's home, and a great friend's boat and a great friend's villa at a great friend's apartment because the intimacy that you have, the generosity that you have, the the private moments that you have are so profound and you're not being hovered over as a strong word, but someone's always not there to serve you because they give you that space and they give you that privacy. Yet every detail is attended to in a perfect way. So the vision for the manner was what would it be like to stay at your best friend's apartment in Soho if your best friend were more connected than you cooler than you or you know a bit better taste than you. What would that actually feel like? And that's how the manner was created. So when you see the bustling street side restaurant but above that a small lobby with privacy, a living room that feels like and your apartment, a private rooftop terrace, and this secluded intimate atmosphere without the bells and whistles that you've seen a luxury hotel. To me that was something that was missing, that is embedded in hospitality in homes with friends but not in commercial hospitality. It almost sounds like the anti-air B&B. I would say the anti-air B&B in the sense that I'm a big fan of Airbnb in certain standpoints, but the way I think about the manner is that it's really the intersection between a private residence with that intimacy and generosity I spoke about with a members club without the pretension of having to apply, but with the knowledge that the people there are all feeling like they're part of this club and the cross with a hotel which has the services and the consistency that you would expect. So I thought about all those things that were happening and say what is the best of each of those worlds and that was the best how we blow in the manner. Hyatt has a massive loyalty program with well over 50 million members. It's an important pillar in your overall strategy and your loyalty members are likely more upscaled than the average American. How does Hyatt's formation of dedicated branding groupings like your lifestyle group play into the larger loyalty program game? So one of the big reasons we were attracted to Hyatt is the loyalty program. The reality is is that that's an important, we were never big enough to have that and what we did is build loyalty in a very old school way which I think is still very important which is getting to know our guests as many as well as we could know exactly where they're coming from, how they take their martini, how they take their coffee in the morning, but their kids, but their kids birthdays are really, really knowing our guests. That gets harder over time and it gets harder in as you scale. We were very proud to have stated a bunkhouse, a database of a million loyalists, people that love what we do. That was a big deal for a company our size but then you say when you open in a place like the Maldives, are you open in Melbourne, are you open in Bangkok? We don't have the recognition, we don't have that base of people. That makes it a lot harder to ramp up the hotels. So I was excited as we grew to make sure that there was a built-in customer base that we could tap into and Hyatt says you said excuse vastly more luxury and upscale. So we're very excited about that. Now to your question how it plays into our groups, well we are going to be heavily focused on is combining what I talked about in terms of what we did and how we built loyalty with how Hyatt built loyalty. So that means getting very deep into CRM, very deep into allowing us to know those guests better and better and causing this network effect to bring our guests and our customers into that loyalty program so they can enjoy the benefits across the world. So if we can do that I think we're on to something very special. So in your previous life as executive chairman at Standard International you were responsible for developing a number of properties including the Standard East Village here in New York City. You soon took the business from a handful of hotels to 20 locations and places like London, the Maldives, Bangkok, Ibiza, you launched a Standard Ex Hotel in Melbourne last year since its debut on Hollywood Sunset strip in 1999. The Standard has really been an irreverent disruptor dominating the social scene as an insider only playground for travelers, a-listers and these boundary pushing creatives. I still remember the late night parties at the boom boom room here in New York City. At the heart of the brand creativity and innovation have rain supreme. Now that Standard is under the Hyatt family will it maintain its distinctive DNA? Absolutely and that's why I'm here. And so I think you saw last weekend, you may have seen last weekend the Met Gala after party at the boom boom room. Yes, yes. As always. I think I wasn't there because I was traveling but I heard it was more fun and more irreverent than ever. That's possible. So I didn't know that was possible but it was quite and I think I was reading some of the articles about it but people were dancing, dancing on tables and that hasn't happened in a few years so that makes me very happy. Coming out of COVID that people are dancing on tables again at the boom boom room so that makes me happy. So you know when we were getting this deal done with Hyatt before it was closing, this sea of Hyatt Mark Kapobase in asked me would I stay involved? And I felt an obligation to stay involved because I an obligation because I love the brand and I love the team that we built. I love our properties so I was happy to stay involved and was not surprised that he asked me to and I gladly accepted but he also asked me to take on the other lifestyle who tells within those lifestyle brands and then they're portfolio as you mentioned Thompson dream on does JDV etc and to me that was an indication of that that high it and mark in the board are very serious about doing this the right way and serious about making sure that we keep not only the standard DNA but our way of our mentality our mindset to do what we can to make the brands within the last stop portfolio for high it that much more that much more special so to me that's a big demonstration and I had a couple conditions is a strong word but a couple recommendations or things that would the things that were necessary for me to make this a success one was that we needed to keep our all of our team together so this was not going to be an acquisition about synergies about about layoffs about cost cutting this was about creating something that taking something that is special making sure it stays special nurturing it giving it resources but also leveraging it to make the rest of the brands more special so I was very important for me to keep our team together because I can't do any of this at all truly without the team that we built and of course welcoming high colleagues into the team as well and I have a big expression that I say all the time within high one plus one equals three that's why we did this and that's we need to to uh to fulfill the second was we had agreement to do no harm do no harm to our organization do no harm to their organization that is an underlying principle that if we ever see something hey if something's going off the rails here we're losing our DNA or we're doing something that doesn't make sense right let's raise our hand and say no that was not the intention here the third thing was uh to me it was imperative that the high-end brands that we were taking on were moved out of Chicago from a brand standpoint and I love Chicago at the second city it's an incredible place but we also needed to put them at with some autonomy in places like New York and Austin and Bangkok where our offices were to make sure that we could get the right creative talent in order to do exactly what you said to keep the DNA and to make sure that there was that separation from a brand standpoint that makes the best of the high infrastructure but also keeps the best of our our identity independence and autonomy and Mark was agreed to all those things so I want to go back to the manner hotel um which you just opened up here in New York City a 97-room design led hotel here in Soho so it's a new brand for standard international you explained a little bit about the concept behind it and what the gap it's filling in New York City and so who are you hoping it attracts compared to its sister the standard hotel which is just a mile up the road? a great question and I don't think they're mutually exclusive sometimes it's how you feel but if I were to say broad brush you know we the standard was founded 25 years ago on the Sun says for up as you mentioned and the standard high line got up and I guess 15 years ago or so and it's extraordinarily successful hotels but the crowd has grown up and I count myself among those people who are obsessed and love and still do love the standard but have grown up and so I would say it's a mature it's a more mature clientele it doesn't have something older a more mature clientele who was looking for a bit of a more intimate experience I think of the way that standard put turned hospitality on his head by putting the city first by putting the community first and giving guests special access to that so the nightclubs that he referenced in Hollywood or the boom boom room or the restaurants that we've had in our locations the cultural events that we've had have been so significant and the whole idea was that this is cultural epicenter and the guests would get a privileged access to that by book booking room there the manner goes the other way which is this is a cocoon all for the guests we it's an experience that allows us to know them to be intimate with them for them to know each other and so when I think about what I was looking for in a hotel this is what I was looking for is that type of experience so I would say the sensibility for design the sensibility for for for a lovely food and beverage offers all of that remains the same the sensitivity for a perfect cocktail and great music but the approach is different when one is wide open to the city and one is more intimate focused on the guest and the manner features interiors by Milan based Hanna's pure architecture who normally does residential design what was Hanna's peers approach to taking on this project that made it interesting for you that's a great question and the Hanna's is genius in this design it comes through and through but it really was a collaboration between our our head of design at Standard International named Verena Haller who's worked with me for many years and who's done great projects like the Standard in London and the Standard in Bangkok these award-winning projects and she come from an area in Italy the Dolomites and Northern Italy in the mountains and one of her great skills is to track designers at all times young designers people have not been hotels before and really get to know them and and keep them as a roster and as friends who when we find the right project we can call them up and say hey would you want to work with us that's how Hanna's came into the project Verena had seen something that he had done an exhibition in Paris and just and had gotten to know him and when this project came up she said Amara think Hanna's would be perfect and I got to know him and it's the imagination of if this were your or my beautiful apartment in Soho who might I want to design it and when I look at Hanna's his work I thought this is the guy who I would love to design the apartment and so that's how he came into the picture and it's it was a big risk to use it to use a designer who's never done a hotel before I had faith in his desire and willingness to learn and Verena's willingness to the ability to guide him and we wanted it to have this really tailored thoughtful residential feel which Hanna says perfect at we also wanted it to be a place where you really don't know what decade you're in there references from all kinds of whether it's brutalist architecture or artwork from around you didn't know exactly what decade you were in it's kind of this fantasy wonderland you can see that millenies influence but you can see a lot of other references there as well you can see in the penthouse you modeled it after Holston's office the 1970s this monochrome red which is just a stunning stunning view so when it's someone to to really get you into this immersive experience where you it's a residential feeling we also don't know what decade you're in you're just fascinated by everything you see whether it's even the geoponting inspired wall on the well that her his ability to put materials and colors together in ways that are unexpected is just remarkable so we're super happy with that I'll never forget when the we finished it basically finished there was a week of opening and Hanna's came to New York and I waited for him at the entry entryway and I took him in there and we walked up the stairs on the the marble stairs that we have and he looked down and I swear he had tears in his eyes it was it was one of the most emotional it was it was incredible because he said I'm aren't you know you you let me do this and this is everything that's ever been in my head in one place so thank you and it was I felt so touched by that and the reason the product came out so great is because someone like that along with the rain and mean so many of the team put their heart and soul into this project and it shows and that was the emotion so I went downstairs I got a maastrichti and I said here's the key I'm gonna leave you now just enjoy yourself and then he spent he spent three hours in the building walking from room to room to room and looking at every single detail just fascinated that the idea that we we trusted him to bring this to life for us yeah that's amazing and it's you know in 2018 hired acquired two roads hospitality the group that own destination hotels Shwada Veeve and Thompson hotels around the world immediately expanding its footprint and pipeline after the acquisition hired started growing the Thompson portfolio across a spectrum of destinations in the US and internationally I remember the first Thompson hotel at 60 Thompson Street down here and so hold back in the early 2000s Thompson has this strong heritage of capturing the spirit of New York it had the caches and cool factor you know it was this magnet for cultural seekers and creative types so since Thompson found a new home at Hyatt and has grown to 20 or so properties how has it been able to take the brand in new directions while still honoring its heritage of this cool New York City hotel yeah now as I said I came at this as a fan of Thompson since an honor to be able to carry it forward but I think they've done a great job with Thompson Thompson and really partly because Thompson started with such a strong DNA I think the aesthetic of Thompson is very clear it's got this really beautiful juxtaposition of old and new aesthetics it's got a very much of a clubhouse feel to it in terms of a social club feeling that Jason had created and always had I think even just looking at New York even though 60 Thompson now is the manner look at if you look at the Beakman Thompson hotel downtown yeah is a beautiful representation of Thompson I think if you look at Thompson Central Park South it's the uptown version of that even with the the burger the burger joint in there but also the feeling that you get that those two hotels are very consistent with the original Thompson's we open a new one in Madrid she came up very well and Shanghai opens this year so I would say it's a tribute to Jason the DNA of Thompson was so strong that it's been carried through I think very well by it by Hyatt I think the purpose of the space that Thompson 60 Thompson served in New York is very similar to what this for example the new Thompson in Austin serves so I think because of the strength of the DNA and the respect that Hyatt has for brands and for that brand I think it's been carried through exceptionally well across the club you've been in the hospitality business long enough to know that designing premier guest experiences at the forefront what have been some of your biggest observations about how hospitality has evolved in the last 10 years oh well it was reflecting on it because I was at this conference in Berlin that called IH as an investment hotel conference. And I realized that I was there. And the first time I went, it was 20 years ago, to that conference. And I was a young man at that time. And I was responsible for the development of W Hotels in Europe, Africa, Middle East region. And at that time, there were no, there were eight W Hotels all in America, not in anywhere in the rest of the world. And I would go to this conference, and people were like, what are you talking about? Like they had no idea. What does this silly thing called W? And what do you mean that the hotel's gonna have, they showed me this video of Randy Gerber, the Cindy Crawford coming in the game, all those kind of old school. And most of the developers kind of shut the door in your face, like there was no interest and no idea what you're talking about, because they had a much more property mentality than a lifestyle mentality. And then sure enough, we started, I did the W and Barcelona, and then Istanbul, and then in Doha, and then say, Petersburg, and London, et cetera, et cetera. And so going back 20 years later, this idea of what is a boutique hotel or lifestyle hotel, it's all, everybody knows that now. But 20 years ago, they've truly, I was there, they had no idea. So what does it mean now? It means that the stakes have been raised, the competition is more significant. Everybody is trying to do what we do. And the big companies are launching brand after brand after brand. And the question becomes, are these really brands, are they names? And to me, if you're not putting the dedication and the team and the heart and the soul that I talked about when I talked about Hanna's, walking in and having tears in his eyes, that is not what this is about. It's about much more than that. When I think about the people that I work with, that's Andre or Liz, the heart and soul that they put into these hotels and these concepts and the way that our team has taken that forward, to me, that's what it's all about. And I think the guess feels that. That's very intangible. It's kind of like you feel it when you know it, when you feel it. But I just, I'd question the companies that are starting brand after brand and just putting a name and doing customer surveys and thinking that because you put a DJ in the lobby that that's what it's about. It's really not. It's much, much, much deeper than that. For those of us who do our best every day to build incredible things for people, we know the difference. I think the people that come through our doors can feel it. I want to shift a little bit with experiential dining, booming, more hotels across the border starting to invest in world-class food and beverage programs. It seems like a smart business move by designing delicious and amazing culinary experiences, addressing sustainability issues and seeking creative approaches to new dining styles. These hospitality brands are really well positioned to serve today's traveler. How does high its lifestyle or fully explore the power of food and beverage and its dining spaces and its into its offerings? So, high it has a long history of world-class food and beverage in particular in Asia. So, the foundation of high it in a national in Asia, when you go and see what it happens at a place like the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, or the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong or Singapore, there's a tradition within Hyatt to have world-class dining well before other companies have done that. That was one of Hyatt's staples. Now, I will say that it's a tough business, the food and beverage part of it. The room's business is much more predictable and easier, not easier, everything's hard, but it's less volatile. And you can build a hotel that lasts for 20, 30, 50, 100 years, the best hotels are old, but the restaurants in there may have changed several times. So, fundamentally, there are two different business models. And to be good at both of them, it really comes back to having the right talent. And that is absolutely everything. And there's an enormous amount of talent out there in the food and beverage side in the restaurant world, but you need to bring them in-house to be working within the company in order to actually do great things. And because the mentality is different, the way you deal with an interact with chefs and front of house people and culture drivers within restaurants and matradies. And there's a lot of characters that are in the food and beverage business in a different way that you see in the hotel. So, having the right team on the ground, having the right team to oversee that and connect with those people to make special experiences a big part of the puzzle. So, what we've done, as I structured the group, going to go forward within the lifestyle group, I promoted an elevated gentleman on our team, Frank Chacamini, who came from the food and beverage background and put him in co-head and charge of operations. To me, that was an elevation of food and beverage to be on par with hotel operations. And that signal, I think, was very important. And also to make sure that everybody knows, F&B is a huge part of what we do. And if we don't do it well, we're not going to be able to compete. So, I think a lot of it is the history that Hyde has, the willingness to put people in place from outside the industry, from outside the hotel industry, or specialists in food and beverage, and have them oversee big elements of the company because it shows that prominence. The other thing I would say is, a big deal is the ability to form relationships with world-class chefs and creative talent, not necessarily the ones who have already made it to the top, but the ones who are up and coming their career, and become a platform for their creativity. That's served as extremely well at Standard, with people like Peter Sanchez, who opened a decimal at Standard and London, Paco Rwano, who opened Oho at the Standard Bangkok on the rooftop there, Alex Stupac, who's a great friend of mine, who opened the auditor, which I believe you went to at the manner. These are people who, like Harness, pour their heart and soul into the food and beverage part of the business, and our ability to partner with them, bring them in and bake them part of the team, the same way we did with Harness on the architecture design. That's the magic. And to me, I can help direct and oversee and put the beats together, by getting the unbelievably talented and creative people to actually come on board, and then have them work together for a common mission. That's the secret sauce. - The Standard expanded its brand and trademark lifestyle into residences space, breaking ground on its first property in Midtown, Miami last year. You also have residents in Lisbon and Austin. Branded residences have gained significant traction, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotel brands and non-hotel luxury brands have jumped on the badwagon too. Why was expanding into branded residences a natural move for the standard? Was your hotel clientele asking for it? - One of the things I loved about the Standard from the beginning, when I first interacted with it 20 plus years ago, and then from when I joined the company and joined Andre Ballagian 2010 originally, was that I always believed the standard was a brand that was more than a hotel. And just if you look at the logo and what it looks like, and it feels like something bigger than just a hotel. If you look at the elements that we have done and that is attracted from the spa in Miami, which has this social bathing culture of Russian and Turkish bath houses to all of the restaurants that we've done to the rooftop nightlife to Leban, a rooftop nightclub, the swimming pool in it, to the Met Gala after parts of the cultural events, to the retail, to even got into publishing, standard culture, all those things. I always believed it was much more than a hotel and had a cultural resonance in the zeitgeist. That was much bigger than that. So with that lens, it kind of was an obvious transition to residences, being that people that stay in the hotel, it developers build the hotel. Then you have a third class who said, I would want to own part of the lifestyle. I would like to live the standard. And it seemed not obvious, but it seemed like something that was natural, especially when I saw brands who don't have that cultural resonance and don't, in my mind, speak to a bigger picture than just a hotel brand, going into it. So we were approached in a few years ago with a developer I'd known for a long time in South Florida. And he said, you have to bring the standard brand to life and residential. I said, we'll be thinking about a long time. Okay, let's do a project together. We picked a location in Midtown Miami just during, or going, I'm not sure we'd during COVID, but around that time. And I thought of this idea of having a pia de terre for young people, which was that it had always been, having a pia de terre was always our second home, was always established people, well-thru people, too, could do that. And obviously that makes sense. But when you, I saw this trend of people being able to work remotely to live these different lifestyles, to be able to have a use mobile devices and zoom and all those things. And I saw them also getting away from their homes. And this propensity I talked about for the younger generation of Travis, I said, why couldn't you do a pia de terre for young people? What better places there have been Miami, especially those who know the brand well in New York. So we did about 200 units in Midtown Miami, small units, but really well designed, well-sized. We have a pickleball disco ball, pickleball court in there we have, we have co-working space, we have a beautiful bakery and cafe downstairs, we have a rooftop restaurant, all residents, our residential know hotel. So then it would sold out so quickly, which was a testament to the concept and a testament to the brand. And so from there we did another standard resins is in London, I'm sorry, in Lisbon, which are all sold out very quickly adjacent to our hotel that will open next year. We do a second project in Brickle in Miami, given the first one sold out. We did a bunkhouse resins at the St. Cecilia in Austin, which was people absets, another of our beautiful hotels we did resins in next door. So I would say it was not overly strategic, but it was seeing a place in the market and understanding that our brands resonate beyond just the hotel stay and so far so good. - So do you see a potential for other hotels in the lifestyle group getting into the branded resident space? - For sure, if they have already to some extent, Thompson has a great project in Mexico that's doing very well. And I certainly see all of our, not maybe not all of our brands, but I certainly see as we get the loyalty for these brands. and the guy's focus, so there's something like loyalty beyond reason. When you have a brand like Standard that sometimes has loyalty beyond reason, people will want to have anything associated with that brand. So Thompson obviously has a great potential in that world. Standard has proven itself, a bunch has proven itself. I think he will definitely see with Andeus as well. So Amar, my final question is the luxury item question, which I ask all my guests. So if you were stranded on a deserted island and you can only have one single luxury item with you, what would that luxury item be? It can't be any form of air or water transportation. So the friends who your boat you're on now cannot pick you up from this deserted island. Or anything that requires mobile service so you can call somebody with a boat or an airplane to get you off that island. It's just you on this lonely island, lots of sand and palm trees. What would that one single luxury item you would like to have with you? I love that question and I'm going to say two items but I think it'll give me a pass because they're connected. It would be a beautiful sketchbook and a beautiful pen. And because you know, I even have one with me now and whether it's getting your thoughts down on paper, whether it's doing your best at a little artwork for yourself or figuring out a writing while you're on the desert island, your frustrations and your dreams and your wishes. I think to me, I'm always sketching and writing and drawing and I can also I guess keep you from getting bored. Amar L'Alvani, President and Creative Director of High It's Lifestyle Group, thank you so much for joining me on the luxury item. Thank you. That's it for this episode of the Luxury Item Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this useful and entertaining, I would be really grateful if you can share it with a friend or colleague. I would love it if you subscribe so you never miss an episode. And while you're there, be sure to rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It really helps other listeners find us. The Luxury Item Podcast is a production of Silver Tone Consulting. I'm your host, Scott Kerr. Until next time.