Leaders of the newly launched brand platform Landingplace Hotels believe they have a chance to shake up the hotel industry by offering a greater degree of flexibility in franchising.
The company is launching with two conversion-focused midscale brands. First up is Landingplace Select, a select-service brand that promises to streamline operational costs for owners by offering things like pay-per-use housekeeping. Next is Landingplace Suites, a model designed to bridge the gap between extended-stay hotels and furnished apartments and offer "flexible 30-plus-night stays without leases."
Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Bratcher said the opportunity for his new company arises from traditional brands growing more rigid on things such as property improvement plans while not delivering the value owners need to succeed.
"We've really built these with our team to address some of the friction points and things that slow down operators and address some of the areas where sometimes legacy systems struggle to evolve in today's fast-moving business climate," he said. "We've got some cutting-edge, innovative approaches that I think are addressing areas that the industry is turning toward but isn't moving as fast as we're able to."
He said his team is made up of people with experience at "the world's largest franchisors and third-party operators." Bratcher himself has worked for brand companies such as IHG Hotels & Resorts, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and several hotel management groups.
President and co-founder Jacob Amezcua said Landingplace Hotels will focus on having an "owner-first mindset." As a real estate investor himself, he said owners' best interests will be top of mind at the company.
"I guess that's the intent of what we're building," he said. "We're building a brand that we always wished existed."
One of the key advantages for the young company will be how it leverages technology without being bogged down by the legacy systems larger hotel brands and operators have to deal with, Bratcher said.
"Rather than reinventing the wheel, our tech stack integrates the best-in-class, proven platforms, which helps us get that continual innovation, and that lets our franchisees benefit for that ongoing improvement without us bearing the cost and burden of proprietary systems that we have to build in house," he said.
Landingplace Hotels is thinking conversions first for growing its two brands, although executives are willing to engage in discussions about new-build properties, Bratcher said. And there is not any particular brand or box the company is targeting since he believes flexibility will be Landingplace's calling card.
"With our focus primarily on conversions, we may have a variety of boxes that were formerly a variety of different brands, so we need to have a flexible framework to make that work," he said. "So coming out of the gate with that in mind, that soft-brand approach, that flexible approach doesn't mean that everything goes. It's not the wild, wild west, but we have to have a reasonable approach."
The two executives said Landingplace Hotels just started franchise sales in earnest this month and the company has been getting strong feedback on its model.
"In less than two weeks that we've been able to officially engage with prospective franchisees, even before any press releases or anything has gone out, the interest from owners, investors and people interested in what we're doing has been incredibly strong," Bratcher said. "We've received inquiries from a wide range of markets: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Oregon and generally throughout the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic."
Landingplace Hotels plans to focus on franchising, but Bratcher added the company is open to owning and operating at least one property on its own at some point.
Landingplace Suites
There's a clear whitespace in the market for a hotel brand that sits in the "massive gap" between traditional extended-stay hotels and multifamily real estate, which is how Bratcher and Amezcua foresee Landingplace Suites operating.
"Typical extended-stay hotels give you a slightly bigger hotel room and hope that's enough," Amezcua said. "Then in furnished apartments, they offer you a space, but they lack flexibility. So we're building something in between for the midterm guest. Something for relocating people, traveling nurses, remote workers."
Ultimately, the brand can be positioned as the best of both worlds for guests and owners, Amezcua said.
"It has the flexibility, amenities and service aspect of a hotel but also the stability of multifamily," he said. "I come from a multifamily background, and the advantage of multifamily over hospitality is lower operating costs — less complex operations, less moving parts and pieces, more stable occupancy, consistent rents. ... And this is more in line with what multifamily would bring operationally."
Landingplace Hotels also promises to be more flexible on distribution for the Landingplace Suites brand and plans to list on channels typically reserved for multifamily residential like Apartments.com.
"So that's opening up new channels and a new demographic that other hotels just aren't targeting, right now," Amezcua said. "That opens up a completely new line of business, which obviously is a benefit for the hotel owner in terms of occupancy."
Landingplace Select
Bratcher stressed that the midscale select-service Landingplace Select brand will be flexible based on the physical property, streamlined operationally and designed in such a way that guests feel connected to the communities they're tied to.
In addition to the scaled-back housekeeping, the hotel brand will cut free breakfast in favor of more modern options such as an expanded grab-and-go market and making it easier for guests to utilize now-ubiquitous food delivery services, Bratcher said.
"When free breakfast started in the midscale space a few decades ago — and I'm using free with air quotes — things like DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber Eats, all of the food delivery services, they didn't exist," he said, adding Landingplace Select is giving guests "true flexibility and freedom of choice."
Free breakfast is something of a misnomer because it's baked into the rate anyway, and guests can instead choose to use that money to get what they want, Bratcher said.
The company's conversion-first mindset means there's not a specific room count target for the brand either, but they will be aiming to get locally inspired design, which Bratcher believes is currently "absent in the midscale space."
"I'm not talking about over-the-top local integration, but at least some elements that will help foster a deeper guest connection to the neighborhood that the hotel's in," he said.
He added Landingplace Hotels will focus on doing that in a way that isn't "a financial burden from a PIP standpoint or an operator standpoint."
"But we'll give the guests more than a place to park in a box, to sleep in, take a shower and leave," he said.