Two More New Brands From Hilton: LXR Hotels & Resorts and Signia Hilton

Habtoor Palace became the first hotel property to be a part of the LXR Hotels & Resorts brand of Hilton earlier this year — a brand which emphasizes luxury with such words as unrivaled, legendary, pedigree and intriguing.

Two More New Brands From Hilton: LXR Hotels & Resorts and Signia Hilton

Located in the Al Habtoor City section of Dubai, the luxury hotel — which is currently the only property under the LXR Hotels & Resorts brand — has 234 guest rooms and will operate as an independent property as it formally joins the aforementioned upcoming luxury collection brand from Hilton. Ideally located on Sheikh Zayed Road and just steps from the Dubai Water Canal, the elegant Habtoor Palace features beaux-arts architecture throughout all guest rooms and public spaces.

Habtoor Palace is one of three hotels in Al Habtoor City which were rebranded by Hilton, as confirmed by this press release on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 which announced a new franchise agreement effective as of Wednesday, August 1, 2018. The other two properties are known as V Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton and Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City.

The former brands of these hotel properties were St. Regis, W and Westin respectively — all of which are brands of Marriott International, Incorporated and formerly of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

The LXR Hotels & Resorts brand has an interesting history: back in August of 2005, the Blackstone Group — which acquired a majority stake in ownership of Hilton Hotels Corporation two years later for $26 billion — announced the formation of a new hotel brand to be known as the LXR Luxury Resorts Collection, which was to encompass “14 Wyndham hotels as well as seven hotels and resorts from Blackstones Boca Hospitality Collection and Prime Hospitality holdings”, according to this official press release.

This is also not the first time Hilton has attempted to create a luxury brand based on experiences and not solely on opulence: as I first reported in this article on Thursday, April 16, 2009, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Incorporated sued Hilton Hotels Corporation over the creation of what was to be known as the Denizen brand of hotel properties — which was to compete directly with the W hotel brand — with allegations at that time that Hilton stole greater than 100,000 documents of confidential information in order for Hilton to enter the lifestyle luxury hotel market as quickly and as inexpensively as possible. Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani were two executives who were hired from Starwood in order to develop the Denizen brand of hotel properties.

That lawsuit was settled in December of 2010, as Hilton agreed to pay Starwood $75 million in cash, with another $75 million in hotel-management contracts entitled to Starwood. Furthermore, a federal judge subjected Hilton to an injection which prohibited the lodging company from introducing any lifestyle hotel properties for two years.

Signia Hilton Brand

“Spoke with the team and confirmed we’ll be able to share more information in Q1 when we officially launch the brand.” This official statement from a contact of mine at Hilton was sent to me in response to my request to find out more about the new Signia Hilton brand, of which I first found out via this discussion posted on FlyerTalk.

Signia Hilton is confirmed as a brand in development which will be introduced in 2019; but what was not officially confirmed were the following details: that the first property of the Signia Hilton brand — of which premiere meetings and events will be its focus — will be located adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

An international event will supposedly be hosted by Hilton in New York in February of 2019 to reveal what will be the 17th brand of the Hilton portfolio. Motto by Hilton was recently introduced as brand number 16, with LXR Hotels & Resorts as brand number 15.

Summary

Some people may say that multinational lodging companies are getting out of hand with introducing so many new brands. With 33 brands, AccorHotels has the most brands of any lodging group, with Marriott International, Incorporated in a close second place with 29 brands…

…and I would initially agree — but if the purpose of the brand can be clearly linked with the name and serve a distinct market which is either underserved or not served at all, then I can understand the introduction of a new brand.

Speaking of matching a brand, did you know that a whopping 158 hotel brands are parts of the worldwide portfolios of only ten lodging brands? Those lodging companies include, in alphabetical order:

1. AccorHotels
2. Best Western International, Incorporated
3. Radisson Hotel Group
4. Choice Hotels International, Incorporated
5. Hilton
6. Hyatt Corporation
7. InterContinental Hotels Group
8. Marriott International, Incorporated
9. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Incorporated
10. Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC

Bonus Feature: How Well Do You Know Hotel Brands?

Listed in alphabetical order are 158 hotel brands — some of which had their parent lodging companies removed from their official names. Can you guess which hotel brands belong to which of the aforementioned lodging companies by matching the numbers of the list below with the letters of the above list? You get worthless bonus points if you can state the specific purpose of each brand — for example, if it is suites, luxury or extended stay.

1. AC Hotels
2. Adagio
3. Adagio Access
4. Adagio Premium
5. Aloft
6. AmericInn
7. Andaz
8. Angsana
9. Ascend Hotel Collection
10. Autograph Collection Hotels
11. avid
12. Banyan Tree
13. Baymont Inns & Suites
14. Best Western
15. Best Western Plus
16. Best Western Premier
17. Best Western Premier Collection
18. Best Western Signature Collection
19. BreakFree
20. Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts
21. Cambria Hotels & Suites
22. Candlewood Suites
23. Canopy
24. Clarion
25. Comfort Inn
26. Comfort Suites
27. Conrad Hotels & Resorts
28. Country Inns & Suites
29. Courtyard by Marriott
30. Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
31. Curio – A Collection
32. Days Inn
33. Dazzler Hotels
34. Delta Hotels
35. Design Hotels
36. Dolce Hotels and Resorts
37. DoubleTree
38. EconoLodge
39. EDITION
40. Element
41. Embassy Suites
42. Esplendor Boutique Hotels
43. EVEN Hotels
44. Executive Residency
45. Exhale
46. Fairmont
47. Fairfield Inn & Suites
48. Four Points
49. Gaylord Hotels
50. GLō
51. Grand Hyatt
52. Grand Mercure
53. Hampton Inn
54. Hawthorn Suites
55. Hilton Garden Inn
56. Hilton Grand Vacations
57. Hilton Hotels & Resorts
58. Holiday Inn
59. Holiday Inn Club Vacations
60. Holiday Inn Express
61. Holiday Inn Resort
62. Home2 Suites
63. Homewood Suites
64. Hotel F1
65. Hotel Formule1
66. Hotel Indigo
67. Howard Johnson
68. Hualux Hotels and Resorts
69. HUAZHU Hotels Group
70. Hyatt
71. Hyatt Centric
72. Hyatt House
73. Hyatt Place
74. Hyatt Regency
75. Hyatt Residence Club
76. Hyatt Zilara
77. Hyatt Ziva
78. ibis
79. ibis Budget
80. ibis Styles
81. InterContinental Hotels and Resorts
82. JW Marriott
83. Jo&Joe
84. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
85. Knights Inn
86. La Quinta
87. Le Méridien
88. The Luxury Collection
89. LXR Hotels & Resorts
90. M/RAVAL
91. MainStay Suites
92. Mama Shelter
93. Mantis Hotels and Eco Escapes
94. Mantra
95. Marriott Executive Apartments
96. Marriott Hotels & Resorts
97. Marriott Vacation Club
98. Mercure
99. MGallery by Sofitel
100. Microtel
101. Motto
102. Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts
103. Moxy Hotels
104. Novotel
105. OneFineStay
106. Park Hyatt
107. Park Inn
108. Park Plaza
109. Peppers
110. Prizeotel
111. Protea Hotels
112. Pullman
113. Quality
114. Radisson
115. Radisson Blu
116. Radisson Collection
117. Radisson RED
118. Raffles
119. Ramada Worldwide
120. Renaissance Hotels
121. Residence Inn
122. The Ritz-Carlton
123. Rixos Hotels
124. Rodeway Inn
125. St. Regis
126. Sheraton
127. Signia Hilton
128. Sleep Inn
129. SO/
130. Sofitel
131. Sofitel Legend
132. SpringHill Suites
133. Staybridge Suites
134. Suburban Extended Stay Hotel
135. Super 8
136. SureStay Collection
137. SureStay Hotel
138. SureStay PLUS Hotel
139. Swissôtel
140. The Sebel
141. Tapestry Collection
142. Thalassa Sea & Spa
143. TownePlace Suites by Marriott
144. Trademark Hotel Collection
145. Travelodge
146. Tribute Portfolio
147. Tru
148. Tryp
149. Twenty Five Hours Hotels
150. The Unbound Collection
151. Vīb
152. W
153. Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts
154. Westin
155. Wingate
156. Wyndham
157. Wyndham Garden
158. Wyndham Grand

Source: Habtoor Palace.