The upper-upscale Hilton brand Canopy this month has opened two new properties and has announced intentions to open in 2020 an additional 18, more than doubling its global footprint.
The company launched this lifestyle brand a little more than five years ago with 11 letters of commitment and the first property opening in 2016 in Iceland. Today the brand has 14 open hotels, so this will be a significant year of growth for Canopy.
"The pipeline is coming to maturity, especially in 2020," Canopy global head Gary Steffen told BTN.
The two hotels that opened in January are in Washington, D.C., and Cancun, Mexico. Thirteen of the upcoming properties will be located in the U.S., in Austin; Baltimore; Charlotte; Dallas; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Jersey City, N.J.; Kansas City, Mo.; Memphis; Philadelphia; San Antonio; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Tempe, Ariz.; and West Palm Beach, Fla. The other five hotels will open in Dubai; Hangzhou, China; London; Paris; and São Paulo.
Corporate transient makes up 12 percent to 15 percent of the brand's business, Steffen said, adding that given the youth of Canopy properties, it's hard to measure if that figure has changed over time. "But especially in the U.S., there's no question we are seeing the percentage of corporate negotiated rates continue to increase," he said. "As we get into more of the requests for proposals through our travel management system, you're starting to see the pickup of a lot of the big accounts we manage."
Beyond negotiated rates, "I'm sure [the percentage] is substantially higher, with people looking at best available rates," he added. "On average, BAR is 25 percent plus of our business, so you know a big percentage of that is business travelers, midweek."
Canopy aims to be neighborhood-centric and not prototypical. Each property gives guests a local welcome gift, and evening tasting events feature regional cocktails, microbrews and wines created in partnership with Proprietors LLC, the training arm of the Death & Co bar chain. The brand also is pet-friendly, and "some business travelers do travel with their pets."
Another Canopy element potentially attractive to corporate travelers is its "transfer lounge," where guests can store luggage, change or shower before or after their stay.
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