Commune Hotels & Resorts is the new name for the parent company of Thompson Hotels and Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which merged last fall.
The company later this year plans to introduce what it calls a “design-driven, value-oriented” brand that appears to be similar to what Ian Schrager is doing with his new Public brand.
Commune was temporarily known as JT Hospitality after the merger. The company has more than 40 hotels under brands such as Thompson, Saguaro and a number of independently named properties in California under the Joie de Vivre umbrella.
Since the merger, the company has reached agreements for new Thompson hotels in Chicago and Miami as well as two other properties in Hawaii and Palo Alto, Calif.
Joie de Vivre and Thompson merged last October to create a coast-to-coast presence for what had been two independent companies based on opposite sides of the country (Joie de Vivre in San Francisco and Thompson in New York).
Commune is strictly a branding and management entity, and doesn’t include real estate holdings, though it does have access to the $150 million hotel-acquisitions fund created by John Pritzker, Commune co-chairman and ex-Hyatt Hotels scion.
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