While a repositioning might not seem like an obvious move for a 14-year-old hotel brand with a track record of success, East Hotels did just that.
Toby Smith, deputy chairman of Swire Hotels, said East has undergone an “evolution” that incorporates the idea of “alternative luxury” or “alternative to luxury” — a concept that involves guests feeling at ease while enjoying high standards of service.
The goal of the rebrand is “to embrace the desires of consumers — both guests and those in the neighborhood — for a place that is more than a hotel, a place where you can gather as a community,” Smith said.
Smith added that many lifestyle hotels “are a bit style over substance and you might get the impression that the staff is there for themselves and not for the guest.”
An overriding principle for East is “we do not have standard operating procedures,” Smith said. When staff members join, they are not given guidelines. They are unscripted when it comes to greeting and dealing with guests.
”We recruit people who have that spirit of originality and give them the autonomy to make decisions,” Smith said. “That in turn creates a much more natural engagement with the guest. If a guest arrives mid-morning, then maybe they’re ready for a chat. If they arrive late at night after a long flight, why don’t we send them straight to their room, send up a refreshment and leave them alone?"
Smith said the rebrand centers around highlighting the best parts of what East was already doing.
"But we have dialed it up and focused more on the communication around it,” he said.
East Hotels is a sister brand to The House Collective, which operates at the very top of the luxury market alongside brands such as Aman and Bulgari, according to Smith. Both brands are owned by Swire Hotels, a subsidiary of Swire Properties, a major Hong Kong-based real estate developer. At the time of East's brand launch, the lifestyle hotel concept was not really prevalent, Smith said.
“We never thought of ourselves as a typical business hotel with a business center, all-day dining and a coffee shop,” he said.
Even in the original iteration of East in Hong Kong, Smith said there was a rooftop bar and no business center. Design was always the focus, but not design for design’s sake.
“We are always thinking with the travelers first in mind,” Smith said. “It’s about authenticity, the unscripted nature of the service and making guests feel welcome and not judged.”
The concept of employees being unscripted with hotel guests has been there from the beginning, but Smith said consumer tastes have changed and East is changing with them. For one, sustainability now looms even larger.
The typical guest “wants to tread lighter on the planet and is conscious of how they consume," he said. "They don’t want to walk into a place that’s overly opulent and makes them uncomfortable. That does not make for a satisfying stay or even a satisfying dinner or drink.”
Also, visitors more than ever want to feel part of the community and immersed in the city. As a result, East properties are hubs for events with the goal of the community feeling that the hotel is there for them, not just for guests.
One way to achieve the desired ambience is to create spaces that facilitate the sense of community. East recently renovated its Hong Kong lobby so it conveys more of a living room environment, a much more activated space with more programming.
Evidence of the success of this approach is the Sugar rooftop bar at the East Miami hotel. The bar sees 90% of its clientele from non-guests and there are 800 covers a night in a 350-key hotel.
“Miami has been a phenomenal success for us,” Smith said.
With a brand that is not particularly well-known, East Miami has been outperforming its better-known competitors since it opened, so Swire is in the midst of an aggressive search for other hotel opportunities in the U.S.
East’s Asian heritage also plays a role in the company’s approach, he said, adding Asian hospitality has a reputation for being warm, genuine and generous in spirit.
“All the things we want to embody in how we interact with guests,” he said.
It is in the brand’s DNA, and efforts are made to export that sensibility, he said. Some elements of cuisine — such as a tea room or an Asian “night brunch" — also reflect that heritage.
East works with Preferred Hotels in the U.S. for the Miami property and has other relationships for sales in China and Europe.
“Our track record shows we don’t need to be plugged into big groups to deliver good returns, but it is something we will continue to review,” Smith said.
There are currently three East properties — in Hong Kong, Beijing and Miami — with three more under way in Tokyo, Australia and China. The three hotels will open in 2027, 2028 and 2029, respectively. So far, all East hotels are newly built but the brand is open to conversions depending on the market.
Smith's focus for next year is North America.
Of the six hotels, Swire owns five. East Miami was sold in 2021 with Swire retaining management. Of the six hotels in development, four are third-party-owned and two are owned by Swire. Smith said the message he is seeking to communicate within the industry is that East is open to working with different owners — although it intends to manage all properties.
In fact, the owners of the East Miami hotel are looking to do more with Swire, he added.
“The hotel is so successful,” he said. “They would love to do a dozen cities.”
There are also hopes to grow the East Hotels brand in South America and Europe, but Smith said the Asia-Pacific region will always have the majority of hotels.
“We’re in no rush to grow,” Smith said. “We’re not judged by our owners by how many flags we put on the map. It has to be the right owner. It’s absolutely about quality not quantity. We will only do one East and one House [Collective] in any city."
That pace “allows us to have a laser focus as far as being consistent with our values. If we start sending out standard operating procedures we have failed,” Smith said.
There are more growth possibilities for East than The House Collective, Smith said. Because of its positioning, for instance, The House Collective might only work in Manhattan while East could be in Brooklyn. He added there are probably 20 U.S. cities where an East hotel could be located.
While many brands talk about similar sensibilities, Smith said it comes down to execution.
“It’s a question of how you do it," he said. "You can copy hardware or principles, but we believe we have truly moved with the market in terms of achieving that sense of community.”
(Updated on Oct. 9 to specify the name of The House Collective brand and clarify East Hotels' three hotels in development around the world.)