Hotel execs talk upscale advantage of apartment-style accommodations

Hotel execs talk upscale advantage of apartment-style accommodations

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In 2024, hotel companies expanded in the evolving upscale extended stay space with apartment-style accommodations. 

Marriott International grew its Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy brand and inked a strategic licensing agreement with Sonder Holdings, adding its 9,000-room portfolio of primarily apartment-style accommodations in urban markets. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, meanwhile, linked up with residential hospitality management company Reside on a 10-year development relationship that debuted the hotel company’s residences tier domestically. 

While the extended stay category has gained momentum in the years following the pandemic, many hotels in the category fall within lower-tier segments. Now, as traveler demand and behavior change, hotel companies are reevaluating the types of longer-stay accommodations they offer and pushing upscale. 

Residence-style hotels are expected to continue to gain popularity in 2025 as guests prioritize convenience and premium amenities. To gauge how the apartment-style accommodations sector will evolve this year, Hotel Dive spoke with executives at Marriott International, Reside and start-up hospitality company Mint House. The hospitality industry leaders shared which markets are poised for growth, how adaptive reuse plays into development strategies and why brand deals pose a big opportunity for growth in the space. 

Changing demand

The pandemic was a catalyst for more travelers — and different types of travelers — demanding flexible, longer-stay accommodations, Mint House CEO Christian Lee told Hotel Dive. New York-based Mint House offers apartment-style short-term rentals in buildings with hotel-style amenities. 

“COVID changed everything,” Lee told Hotel Dive, noting that, in the wake of the pandemic, the hospitality industry was forced to figure out how travel trends and habits had changed and how hybrid and remote work factored into how consumers travel and choose lodging.  

First, there was the emergence of digital nomads staying at extended stay properties for weeks or months at a time, Lee explained. There was “a huge increase in the length of stay,” he said. 

Then, as that trend began to recede, revenge travelers embarked, he noted. As time progressed, business travel began to resurge for in-person events and meetings. And for business travelers, specifically, apartment-style accommodations became an ideal lodging option because they provide “all the comforts of home,” with a place to work, do laundry and cook, while also having the luxuries of hotels — like security and a space that is professionally cleaned, Lee said. 

Reside CEO Lee Curtis told Hotel Dive that the furnished apartments for more transient stays “has caught the attention of the traveler and the business person.” 

“Post-COVID, there’s a type of traveler, whether it’s leisure or business, that finds great value and comfort in something that isn’t a hotel room, but has hotel-type amenities,” Curtis said.  

Traveler demand for higher-end offerings in the extended stay space is what led Marriott to launch Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy in the U.S. in 2022, Marriott Global Development Officer, U.S. and Canada Noah Silverman shared with Hotel Dive. The brand offers premium and luxury apartment-style accommodations with private bedrooms, a separate living room, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. 

There was “very clearly a growing segment of consumers” looking for extended stay accommodations in the premium and upper upscale tier, Silverman said. “Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy [is] … a perfect marriage of two segments of hospitality that have been growing and have been successful.” 

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