3 Brands, One Common Core
Although Commune Hotels & Resorts is made up of three separate brands—Thompson Hotels, Joie de Vivre and the new Tommie hotels—at its core, “we are wholly committed to creating transformative experiences for our guests, across all lifestyle brands,” says Commune Hotels & Resorts’ CEO Niki Leondakis. “Commune’s three brands, though distinct with their own signature personality, share a few things in common. All brands are inspired and driven by design, embrace the communities and cultures that surround their hotels, and offer guests thoughtful and transformative experiences. All brands provide unique and individualized hotels that are attuned to their location and communities, with service that’s more personal and centered on guests as individuals. They offer a sense of place through creative interiors and thoughtful amenities, and experientially connect the guest to the local neighborhood.”
That said, these three different brands do offer a different ambiance and target different travelers. Thompson Hotels, with properties in New York, London, Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles, offers a luxury experience within a contemporary setting, appealing to a worldly clientele. The four-star-level Thompson Hotels properties are found in urban centers and gateway cities, and come 2015, the Thompson name will debut in Playa del Carmen with a 125-room and -suite property, as well as a meandering rooftop pool and spa.
Joie de Vivre properties, meanwhile, are found all over the United States—from Hawaii to Chicago, with 20 hotels in California alone. These three- to 3.5-star-level properties are, as Leondakis, points out, “playful and one-of-a-kind, and tend to focus on the local
environment. The guest experience is as original as the hotels, which makes the brand attractive to a broad range of travelers, from families to Millennials to business travelers.” Leondakis notes, too, that the company is looking to expand the Joie de Vivre brand on the east coast, with “several hotels opening on the horizon.”
The company’s newest venture, Tommie hotels, is slated to debut in early 2015 with two properties in NYC—one with 250 rooms, the other with 329 rooms—and will eventually roll out in international gateway cities such as London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Miami. This brand, according to Leondakis, “will be innovative social destinations for Millennials and free-thinking global travelers who like to integrate work and play.” She stresses that Commune Hotels & Resorts believes that there is a “significant opportunity in the market for an affordable, design-savvy and social hotel brand. Naturally, the accessible price point, beautiful design and youthful spirit of the brand will appeal to Millennials and Gen Y, but we think Tommie will also be intriguing to the discerning travelers who are of means, but who are budget conscious and do not want to sacrifice experience for value.” These properties will feature elegant, ergonomic guestrooms, optimized for room density; unconventional meeting spaces for creative minds; “reading rooms,” public lounges for gatherings and curated programming; and casual communal dining experiences.
So whether it’s a Thompson, Joie de Vivre or Tommie your client wants to book, Leondakis explains that “Commune Hotels & Resorts offers layered, transformative experiences so guests can stay and socialize from day to night without having to leave the property—whether they are at an intimate hotel wine hour, or a highly activated, multi-outlet lifestyle complex. We strive to provide exceptional experiences that matter most to our guests with a new and fresh perspective.”
Travel agents, too, can feel the joie de vivre with a 10 percent commission, and, as Leondakis notes, the company “always looks for opportunities to create preferred relationships that at times will have a higher commission structure.”
contact information
Commune Hotels & Resorts: communehotels.com
Joie de Vivre: jdvhotels.com or jdvhotels.com/travel-agents
Thompson Hotels: thompsonhotels.com
Tommie: tommiehotels.com
