LOS ANGELES — Hilton Worldwide last week announced a new midscale brand called Tru by Hilton that will compete with the likes of La Quinta, Best Western, Ramada and Comfort Inn by offering a larger and socially oriented lobby area, technologically advanced rooms and a modern feel.
Hilton, which had 11 brands but none in the midscale sector, has agreements for more than 102 Tru hotels in cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago and Dallas. The brand's first property will open by the end of the year, although Hilton didn't say where.
The company is launching the brand as a newbuild product because the concept's lobby space and room size is not compatible for conversions, according to Phil Cordell, Hilton Worldwide's global head of focused service brands.
The exceptions will be a few urban buildings that may be redeveloped from offices or other uses into a Tru hotel.
Hilton, which announced plans last summer to enter the midscale market, appears to be aiming for the millennial traveler. Cordell, while giving a tour of a mock-up version of the hotel at last week's Americas Lodging Investment Summit here, classified the typical Tru guest as having "a youthful mindset that transcends leisure and business travel."
That means having a 2,800-square-foot lobby area called the Hive that will include zones for lounging, working, eating and playing. The Play Zone will be equipped with table games, a large-screen TV with DirecTV satellite service and stadium-style seating.
The hotel will offer what it calls a Build Your Own Yum breakfast bar area that will offer 30 "sweet and savory" items that guests can put on bagels and doughnuts or in Greek yogurt and oatmeal.
The Hive will include a Command Center that will feature a social media wall and a grab-and-go market as well as an area to check in, although Hilton says HHonors members will have an app that will enable Tru guests to use their mobile phones to both check in and access their rooms without keys.
The highly wired rooms will average about 250 square feet and will include amenities such as 55-inch, flat-screen TVs offering 150 channels through DirecTV, all-white platform beds and eight-foot-wide windows.
With Tru, Hilton enters a midscale sector whose demand has, true to form, run lockstep with the overall U.S. market. The sector's revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 6.3% last year after advancing 8.2% in 2014, according to STR. Room rates averaged $83 last year, compared with $115 overall, while occupancy stood at about 60%, about six percentage points below the overall mark.
Cordell said last week that Tru room rates will average between $90 and $100 a night and added that the brand will be cost-competitive in the sector because of the design. Specifically, the smaller rooms and lack of swimming pools and meetings spaces reduce the footprint, while the guestroom setup, which lacks a closet (there's a wardrobe hanging bar and a shelf above the mini-fridge) or traditional desk (there's a modern-looking chair with a small, c-shaped desk attached) cuts furnishing expenses.
He added that the concept allowed for dual-branded developments pairing Tru with Hilton's Home2Suites upper-midscale brand.
"This could be the largest brand in this space," Cordell said. "Some of those [midscale] brands have tweaked their prototype, but there's nothing new that's [entered the sector] for a while."
Hilton last year announced the creation of a lifestyle brand called Canopy, the first of which will open in Reykjavik, Iceland, this year.