Tempo By Hilton: Yet Another Brand For Traveling Millennials

Hilton is rolling out a new brand, Tempo by Hilton, the latest offering by the hospitality industry to try to capture millennial travelers.

The hotel giant said that it has inked commitments to open 30 properties of the brand, with 30 others at various stages of development. The company didn't unveil a schedule for the openings.

The properties' focus will be on experiential elements, Hilton said in a statement. Among other things, the new brand will offer bathroom mirrors with built-in Bluetooth speakers, art collections in the public areas, flexible meeting space, spirited and non-spirited craft cocktails, and seasonal menus. Hilton also touts the sustainability of the properties.

The new hotels will feature a "curated assortments of morning and bedtime rituals created in partnership with Thrive Global," Hilton said. Thrive Global, founded by Arianna Huffington, touts behavior-changing tech to ameliorate stress. 

Hilton surveyed more than 10,000 members of the prized demographic and found that 70% were willing to pay for a more thoughtfully crafted hotel, Phil Cordell, Hilton's global head of new brand development, told Business Travel News. They are also more likely to see their hotel choice as a reflection of their success, he said.

Millennials are an increasingly important presence in the hospitality industry, and their preferences are driving industry trends. For example, communal spaces are more important to that demographic than traditional lobbies, with a preference for open space that takes advantage of a hotel's surroundings, according to a 2019 report by GEP.

Some hotels are thus reinventing their lobbies as tech-oriented meeting space.

Millennials are also looking for experiences when they travel, GEP said. The report cited Canopy by Hilton, Moxy by Marriott and Element by Starwood as examples of hotels emphasizing experiential stays. Home-sharing site Airbnb rolled out the first curated travel experiences several years ago and larger traditional brands soon followed.

Hilton didn't say exactly where its new hotels will be, but it did cite an assortment of markets in which they will be developed, such as New York, Los Angeles, Maui, Nashville, San Diego, Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. Most of the properties will be new construction, though a few might be adaptive reuse.

Tempo by Hilton is the company's 18th brand. Other brands launched recently by Hilton include Motto by Hilton, a micro-hotel in urban locations, and Signia Hilton, a meetings and events brand.