ATLANTA—IHG Hotels & Resorts announced the availability of new prototype options for its three suites brands—Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, and Atwell Suites. By expanding design choices, IHG provides flexibility for developers across site configurations and market types while maintaining the experiences guests expect in the suites space.
The new options emphasize space optimization and the potential for new efficiencies while retaining features from current designs. These options supplement rather than replace existing choices for all three brands and offer owners and developers additional flexibility to find the best fit for their market and site, including new build, conversion, dual-brand, or adaptive reuse properties.
Specific dimensions and exact key counts will vary for each property and brand but prioritize the retention of identifiable brand hallmarks, including in-room storage, kitchen space, and common food and beverage areas. Components of the new design options include:
- Staybridge Suites: The introduction of the new Smart Studio room configuration offers developers the option to include a slimmer room bay (a reduction from its current 16’ size to 13’). Engineered to house shorter-stay guests, this new room type could comprise as much as 25 percent of the overall room mix. These guest suites additionally have space through kitchen equipment and fixtures and millwork cabinetry, while maintaining designated work, sleep, and relaxation zones designed for a residential-style stay.
- Candlewood Suites: The Beacon 4.2 variation builds upon the performance of the brand’s most recent design introduced in 2019 by further optimizing land usage and generating new efficiencies through increased building density. With slimmer room bays (from 15’3” to 12’6”) containing a fully equipped kitchen and recliner, along with flexible room mixes, and designated social, semi-private, and communal lobby working areas, the additional Candlewood Suites prototype offers the potential to add up to 12 keys on a similarly sized site.
- Atwell Suites: Developers now can choose between two lobby configurations for Atwell Suites properties, with a new one-story, centrally loaded model available alongside the existing two-story end-loaded design while maintaining work, lounge, bar, and dining spaces. An additional slimmer room bay option (12’6” versus 16’8”) includes a wet bar, sofa, and work desk, and brings the potential to add up to 12 keys on a similarly sized site.
Kevin Schramm, senior vice president of development, mainstream brands—U.S. and Canada at IHG, said, “IHG continues to build on our nearly three decades of leadership in the extended stay and suites space by evolving our prototype designs to increase owner value while offering the spaces and amenities short- and long-term travelers value most. Our new concepts reflect guest and owner feedback and enable new and existing owners to deliver our modern suite experiences—in various forms—to more markets without compromising consistency or quality.
The new prototype options will be available by Q2 2024, with the first properties to feature them expected to open as early as 2025. Currently, the designs will only be open to U.S. properties but allow for potential future adoption in Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
With more than 700 open global properties—nearly all in the Americas—for its three suites brands, Staybridge Suites celebrated its 25th anniversary last December, while 2023 openings in Salt Lake City and Houston expanded the reach of Candlewood Suites to more than 520 open or pipeline Americas hotels since its 1996 debut. Atwell Suites opened its third U.S. property in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, joining hotels in Denver and Miami.
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