Atwell Suites, the 16th and most recent brand launched by InterContinental Hotels Group, is debuting its first hotel as a dual brand, which will be part of a new high-rise, mixed-use property in Miami.

The all-suites brand, geared towards travelers looking for a combination of extended-stay and select-service amenities in the upper-midscale segment, launched in May 2019.

Speaking during an online media event, Jennifer Gribble, senior vice president of global marketing and mainstream brands for IHG, said Atwell Suites hit a milestone of 20 hotels in its pipeline in the third quarter of 2020. The brand was franchise-ready in September 2019.

Kevin Schramm, vice president of development and mainstream brands for the U.S. and Canada, said those 20 hotels represent executed franchise license agreements. The most recent signing is in Las Vegas, he added.

Schramm said the first Atwell Suites under construction is well-positioned in Miami’s urban Brickell neighborhood, and is part of a new mixed-used property that also includes a Hotel Indigo.

“Miami is the cultural, economic, financial center of South Florida. The metropolitan area is home to over 6 million people. It’s the second most populous city in the southeastern United States and the seventh largest in the nation,” he said.

He said the property, owned by Sunview Companies, would feature 90 Atwell Suites rooms and 140 Hotel Indigo rooms. Both hotels plan to share back-of-house space and parking, as well as a pool deck, he added.

Gribble said the hotel is planned to open in summer 2021.

Karen Gilbride, vice president of Avid Hotels and Atwell Suites, said the Atwell Suites prototype has been developed to be new construction, and much of the pipeline is that. However, there have been conversion opportunities as well, including a project in Austin, Texas.

For a conversion to happen, Schramm said it needs to be a complete transformation of an existing hotel into an Atwell Suites. Everything should be in line with the prototypical Atwell Suites. In terms of more dual brands, he said that would be an option for a developer in an urban market looking to achieve density and who feels stronger about splitting the room count between two channels as opposed to all inventory under one roof.

“Do we expect more with Hotel Indigo? This is a unique opportunity that we had with the Miami project, but we could see additional dual-brand combinations, not only with Hotel Indigo, but with other brand configurations,” Gilbride said.

Schramm said his team is focused on expanding within the U.S., then into Canada and/or Mexico, similar to the Avid brand.

Gilbride said Atwell Suites would trend toward a slightly higher percentage of business travelers than leisure, though it will differ in each market and should perform well for both.

BJ Patel, vice president of development at Baywood Hotels and member of the Atwell Suites Owner Advisory Board, said in times like the coronavirus pandemic, “business travel drops off dramatically.”

“What we like about the Atwell Suites brand [is] you can interchange very quickly from leisure to business,” he said. “That flexibility is not always there with other brands.”

Gribble said the mainstream brand is resilient and in a category in which there will always be guest demand.

“Even in the most challenging of times, we see this as a segment that’s very important to consumers. When we looked across the mainstream category as a whole and we did our consumer research, we saw that within the mainstream category, there was an all-suites segment that was growing,” she said. “This particular segment represents $18 billion in industry annual revenues.”

From an economic perspective, Schramm said the Atwell Suites brand was designed with owner returns and guest appeal in mind. He said the owner advisory board considered the owners’ perspective and how they review returns on the asset equally weighted against guest’ desires, needs and expectations.

He said the cost of a prototypical Atwell Suites building ranges between $105,000 to $115,000 per guestroom, excluding other unique development costs.

“When you couple that with a target average daily rate of somewhere between 5% and 10% above our Holiday Inn Express brand, we blend the lines very well for what most owners are seeking in terms of a percentage [return on investment],” he said.

Additionally, the efficient building and streamlined staffing models enables operators to maximize guest interaction while controlling operating costs. He said Atwell Suites is a high-touch, lower-labor model.

Gilbride said each guestroom has “thoughtful zones” for both work and relaxation. Often, hotel desks can feel like an afterthought, she said.

“We moved [the desk] to a counter height [that] gives more flexibility for the space,” whether for working, dining or laying out luggage, she said. The angle of the desk also is conducive for video conferencing meetings, as the bed won’t be visible in the background.

Gilbride said the “work from anywhere” trend is evolving, and as more Atwell Suites hotels come to market, there will be opportunities for guests and locals to use its spaces in different ways.

Instead of a full kitchenette for cooking in the guestrooms, the brand offers the essentials that make a comfortable stay, such as a coffeemaker, microwave, counter-height refrigerator and wet bar.

Gilbride said the pandemic has not shifted the design of the Atwell Suites brand.

“Certainly, based on when our hotel opens and where we are, all of the items that we have across our IHG hotels to help deliver our safety protocols … would be things that we can easily incorporate,” she said.