The very first Caption by Hyatt, the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis, will open this summer as a category 3 redemption. Additional properties are planned in Shanghai, Osaka, Tokyo and Saigon.
Since the brand was launched, Hyatt has opened its first tommie hotels as well. And I’m not sure I understand how the concepts are really supposed to be different. Hopefully seeing a Caption property open will help explain this.
Original, September 25, 2019:
The new Hyatt Caption brand has just been announced though no specific properties or locations have been named. Caption by Hyatt appears to be a competitor to Marriott’s Moxy which is best known for rooms so small no desks will fit.
The Hyatt Caption brand will be ‘select service’ along with their Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands, but with smaller (“cozy”) rooms that will “bring people closer together” rather than letting them spread out. But don’t worry, since you barely fit inside the room there will be “communal spaces” where they’ll sell you food.
Caption by Hyatt hotels will be anchored by a distinctive food and beverage experience that will be a vibrant mash-up between café, market and bar. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) consulted on the design and curation of a conversation-worthy food and beverage concept for the brand.
Expect rooms that are 220 to 270 square feet, which while small is still bigger than what’s offered at the Hyatt Herald Square.
Hyatt Caption Hotel Room Diagram, Credit: Hyatt
This all adds up to a “lifestyle experience” that will drive “superior revenue opportunities.” Expect to see it in “dense urban markets, emerging neighborhoods and high foot traffic areas.”
Although I wonder about select service hotels targeting younger, mobile-savvy consumers that are betting on food and beverage revenue streams when those same consumers have all of the local food options available to them delivered via app – whether UberEats, GrubHub, Postmates, DoorDash, etc. Will the hotel really meet everyone’s tastes, and do it better, than all of the local restaurant options available?
Here are renderings of what properties will look like.
Caption Hotel Public Space Rendering, Credit: Hyatt
Caption Hotel Room Rendering, Credit: Hyatt
Caption Hotel Room Rendering, Credit: Hyatt
When Hyatt acquired Two Roads Hospitality one of the brands they picked up was tommie, “a new, micro lifestyle hotel brand.” It was supposed to debut in 2015 but there are no active tommie properties yet though the first property intended to be a tommie – in Hollywood, California – started construction last fall. tommie doesn’t appear on Hyatt’s development site though Caption now does.
Ultimately more hotels in Hyatt’s portfolio is better, and another brand makes it easier to earn a category 1-4 free night for each 5 brands you stay at. However the preponderance of limited service properties within World of Hyatt runs counter to the upscale focus of the program and means a smaller percentage of properties where it’s possible to use key benefits of club lounge and suite upgrades.
Gary: Thanks for adding your comments (although some readers don’t like what you have to say…)
Far better to me than simply copying and pasting the supplier’s press release. (Like the Barclay’s credit card “enhancement” story from earlier today. Somehow, taking things away is NOT an enhancement.
Can you earn a third 1-4 cert for staying at 15 brands?
I am a millennial, I stayed in a “tru by hilton” once.
Same deal, small rooms, non carpeted floor, same platformish beds.
I only stayeed there because it was a brand mew hotel (I mostly do old Hamptons) and it had double points.
Thoughts:
Didn’t bother with the social area, and the lack of a bagged breakfast like hampton’s was annoying.
The fake wood floor was not as nice on my feet as carpet
The worst thing is that platformy bed. There is no boxspring to save money which is less comfortable, and you see that wooden box surrounding that mattress? Every day when I got up and swung my legs out of bed they hit that wooden edge and it was moderately painful.
With all this, I still would consider the brand warts and all (the millenial pandering annoys me) if they were significantly cheaper than the hamptons.
Instead I noticed the opposite, the rundown hampton accross the street actually was cheaper.
The elevators smelled bad every evening for some reason, but the rooms were carpeted, the comfy bed had a boxspring; and for a lower price I got upgraded to a king room w/a hot tub; oh and I could snag a bagged breakfast on the way out.
This millennial will pick a simple old fashioned Hampton/Fairfield hotel over some crappy “millenial brand” any day.
Besides do these idiots know why my generation is interested in the tiny houses and “the community experience”?
We just can’t afford the good stuff, it ain’t a preference!
All the boomers outsourced the factory jobs so they could buy cheap trash from China; oh and then they imported a bunch of foreign workers to take all the lower end jobs, and now they want h1b people to drive down wages in the tech sector.
Oh and these foreigners, they need housing so guess what that does? IT RAISES HOUSING COSTS FOR US!
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the boomers will give them all social security so it is bankrupt by the time will get it.
Cash for clunkers also did a great thing at taking millions of used cars off the market, I mean if you were a person who could afford a new car, it’s a great deal. If you are usually the 3rd or 4th owner of a car for < $1000 , having them all get shredded and used cars doubling/trippling in price was great.
@stvr – yes
We stayed at a Moxy at MXP (Milan). The room was maximized to the fullest extent. Small? Yes. Pretty? Yes. The bathroom? Small and functional + pretty. Even my hard to please wife was impressed. This was an overnight stay.
I’m with A_B on the whole “millenial” thing.
I found Tru to be just fine, though. I find carpets in general “icky” anyway, so I don’t mind a “downgrade” to laminate or vinyl. I’ve stayed in plenty of crappy properties, so am just fine in a cheap bed (though I do appreciate a comfy one!). I also prefer newer/modern to older/old-fashioned, so when it comes to cookie-cutter properties, I will usually choose the modern one, even if it’s “millennial-oriented.” I don’t want to see the same tired walls and carpet I used to see when I was in grade school, traveling with my parents. Even if it’s marketed as a brick-and-mortar Tinder or LinkedIn, it’s easy enough to see past that and appreciate it’s not just “that place we used to stay, just off the highway.”
the room in the rendering above looks about twice as big as a hotel room i had in London once. I don’t remember what chain it was but it was one of the big players.
Small rooms are great if they bring down the price but they don’t really. If i’m paying for a room half the size, it should be half the price. Yes, i know the economics don’t work that way with furnishing and housekeeping, et al but it should.
and @A_B; your comments are spot on (and i’m a tail end boomer saying that.)
Caption This:
It’s missing communal bathrooms and communal showers.
A_B: Learn to code and work from a home…just not mine
Millennial here. This brand looks great, provided two things are true: 1) this brand consists of properties located in desirable areas of major cities (think Denver CBD, Portland pearl district, or Seattle SLU); and 2) the rooms are set at roughly 75% of traditional brand room prices (i.e., if a Hyatt Regency were $200/nt, a room at a Caption would be $150/nt).
When I visit a city, I’m there to explore. I use the hotel room to sleep and get ready for the day. I eat meals, and drink alcohol outside of the hotel, so none of those amenities appeal to me. I only need a quiet room and a place to get ready for the day. Caption seems like it offers that.
The savings are never worth what they take away and prices continue to increase at greedy and ridiculous rates. God bless air bnb but even that is worsening but still better than any hotel chain.
@ Gary — Bill Gates is a genius.
Hyatt is genius. Fooling people with overpriced mediocrity for years just because bloggers say you its good.
The best investment Hyatt ever made is to increase commission to bloggers to push their card and drive people to their mediocre hotels.
Clean, centrally located, cheap, some color in the room, safe and a comfortable bed if one is taking a city trip is perfect selection criteria. When eyes are closed a suite feels it has the same size and prize as a standard room. Unless one stays at aspirational hotels, then the hotel experience is part of the deal and thus the costs. One needs to be rational and not fall for the marketing traps.
Showing your age here Gary, that facetiousness will end up catching up with you.
These concepts are super popular amongst the younger demographic *and* they’re a big winner for franchisees.
Either way, more choice is to be welcomed.
I am older 58 my spouse is 36 … we have stayed all over the world. Moxy’s in city centers are just fine. I imagine the Hyatt version will be better still.
We spend most of our days out and about seldom in before midnight. Just need a clean quiet place to stay. So a 225-265 SQ foot room isn’t an issue
I am equally comfortable at a Ritz Carlton or a Conrad.. but at a city location absent the ability to have room service coffee at 0500 most of the 4 / 5 star stuff doesn’t matter
Looks terrible. I want a proper desk.
@A_B –Not a millenial but I’ve stayed in a few Hilton Tru’s and I think it’s a poor product. It just comes across and cheap and austere — kind of like a hip budget hostel. I think any millenial — and everyone else — would much prefer their other new affordable brand, Home2Suites. It’s mid-priced and has a hipper vibe and better amenities than a Hampton.
Obviously many folks would take a smaller room in certain circumstances to save money. But with the big US chains, you never seem to save money with smaller rooms.
As a Globalist, I am not a big fan of Hyatt Places. I find them dull and predictable. The rooms tend to be on the large side but useful amenities are lacking. Heck, they don’t even give you a microwave. The Hyatt Place lobbies are sterile and the breakfast usually boring. If Hyatt has an alternative to that, I’d be happy to try it.
Millennial, if i can get a good rate in high density area’s these seem great i don’t need a massive room. i want a nice place to sleep and some style is nice. i have really enjoyed the Moxy’s i have been to and probably the same with Motto when i get around to staying at one.
Who uses a desk in the hotel?
Ok boomer.
Why another brand? Isn’t this essentially the same look, feel and target demo as Tommie by Thompson which has properties in Austin and LA? Or will that new brand be a goner soon for this brand since it has a Hyatt reference in the name?
I’d be fine with small rooms if the soundproofing was excellent.
Stayed at Moxy in Chicago with the wife, and we couldn’t have liked it more. Actually made us look towards them as we continue to travel. Good location, good price, and we found it fun. I don’t need a sitting area with a desk while on a quick, sightseeing trip. Got some late night food from the taco place downstairs and had drinks on our way in.
looks like a great location for prostitution.
Hook up at the bar, bring back to the room for sex, and that’s it!!!
No extra space needed!!!
Small is the new big…..
It’s nice low class and low IQ Americans are finally catching up to Europe in terms of hotel rooms. As usual the Amerimutts lag behind their betters by a few decades.
Maybe one day American women will stop wearing yoga pants as everyday wear showing off their fat legs and butts.
Are these types of brands actually still focused at millennials? Or are they more targeting Gen Z now? Most millennials are in their 30s now… This mid-30s millennial never understood the alleged appeal of the millennial-pandering brands in the first place, though.