“In the realm of hospitality, The James defines luxury liberated from tradition”. This quoted statement is the slogan of the emerging luxurious hotel company “The James”. The James opened their first doors in downtown Chicago four years ago. This 297-room hotel offers modern and sophisticated designs at midlevel prices. Downtown Chicago is mainly made up of Marriotts, Sheratons, and Hyatts. Therefore, the introduction of a modern and stylish hotel at reasonable prices put a big competition pressure on the bland hotel chains.
The James opened their second “boutique hotel” this fall in SoHo, New York. “When the James Hotel opens its doors this fall in SoHo, on the corner of Thompson and Grand, many things will be shiny and new” stated a Wall Street Journal reporter. The Hotel industry took a hit with the recession. However, collected data shows strong improvement from those past two weak years and predicts even better for the year to come. However, with the new emerging competition, hotel companies (both luxury and mid-level ones) must renovate their establishments since The James Hotel provides luxury at midlevel prices.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703720504575377321936169274.html?KEYWORDS=new+hotel
This blog post is interesting because it relates to some of the other posts that have appeared on the blog. Many of them state that in order for hotels to thrive in the changing economy, they need to make changes internally. However, another alternative to cheap rates and deals are simply new hotel companies swooping in and offering "luxury at midlevel prices". The James and other hotel companies like it will most likely thrive because they have appeared in the middle of the recession, so they know exactly what they are up against and they can change their business accordingly.
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