Two California-based luxury-hotel operators, SBE and Montage Hotels & Resorts, are making plans to expand geographically in an effort to better capitalize on the resurgence in travel spending, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
Los Angeles-based SBE, known for both its nightclubs and its SLS hotel brand, said last week that it would start operations in China by 2015.
The company, whose first SLS Hotel opened in Beverly Hills in 2008, reached an agreement with China-based Palace Hospitality for China's first SLS hotel to open in Shanghai, followed by properties in Beijing, Wuxi and Kunming.
The company did not disclose further details about the openings' time frame or room counts.
Meanwhile, Laguna Beach, Calif.-based Montage has acquired the Residences at Kapalua Bay on the northwest coast of Maui and will convert part of the property to a Montage hotel resort in August, according to Pacific Business News. Montage representatives did not respond to requests for comment from Travel Weekly.
In both cases, the expansion represents a continued effort by Southern California-based luxury hoteliers to expand their global reach and take advantage of a surge in travel spending in the Asia-Pacific region.
Like other U.S. hoteliers, SBE, which has properties in the works in New York and Las Vegas, is lured to China by both projections of increased tourism spending by the Chinese and by rising visitor numbers. Last year, China boosted its inbound tourists by 11%, to 3.1 billion, according to Smith Travel Research.
"The SLS Hotels brand connects with a global community," SBE President Sam Bakhshandehpour said in a July 10 statement. "We're humbled by the opportunity to expand our presence in China as we continue to grow the brand across the U.S."
Meanwhile, Montage, which opened its first hotel, in Laguna Beach, in 2003, looks to boost its global presence after its progress was slowed by the global recession. The company, whose investors include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, opened resorts in Beverly Hills and Deer Valley, Colo., in 2008 and 2010, respectively. It has long been working on developing in a property in Los Cabos, Mexico.
In an April interview with Travel Weekly, Montage CEO Alan Fuerstman said the company was "looking at Hawaii" for a property "that will do very well with our brand."
SBE last June reopened what had been Miami Beach's Ritz Plaza Hotel as the 142-room SLS Hotel South Beach following a complete renovation of the 72-year-old beachfront property.
And next year, the company will open its first New York hotel, in midtown Manhattan, and reopen Las Vegas' old Sahara Hotel & Casino as the SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
SBE, which also has plans for hotels in Seattle and Philadelphia, is also working on launching a boutique brand of hotels named for the Raleigh hotel in Miami Beach's South Beach district, which the company acquired last year.
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