New Arlo Microhotel Brand To Open First Locations In NYC
With the 325-key Arlo Hudson Square and 250-key Arlo NoMad micro-hotels set to open in the next two months, international developer and investment firm Quadrum Global has hired a team of Marriott, Starwood and GEM Hotel alumni to kick-start its next growth phase.
Seeking to transfer its development and asset management expertise to hotel operations, the international investor and equity partner hired seven NYC hospitality experts to form an in-house management team.
Quadrum Global US investment head Seth Schumer (pictured, center, at a Bisnow event) says Quadrum had to make sure the new team was accomplished, experienced and innovative in the hospitality industry, and had the intimate knowledge of the Big Apple that would allow it to help create unique, local experiences.
“Our managing director, Javier Egipciaco (pictured), was born and raised in the Lower East Side,” Seth says. “We wanted to make sure our key executives were real New Yorkers because we wanted a lifestyle background, not just a hospitality background.”
Javier's also bringing 18 years of industry experience, starting at Park Hyatt and eventually becoming the GM of three Lower Manhattan GEM Hotels and Hersha Hospitality Management's NU Hotel in Brooklyn and Duane Street Hotel in Tribeca.
Joining Javier from HHM, Arlo president Foiz Ahmed will oversee operations and has worked in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years, including stints at Marriott and as VP of HHM's Independent Collection, where he helped the brand add seven locations.
Quadrum hired five more industry vets for the Arlo flag: Maggie Houston (right) and Li Tang, GMs of the Arlo Nomad and Arlo Hudson Square, respectively; Jason Enany (left) will serve as Arlo's area director of food, beverage and entertainment; Katherine Solomon will be tracking Arlo's revenue strategy, toolkit, online partnerships and e-commerce; and Heather Berti will run the brand's HR.
This increased desire for unique, local experiences has become a common trend in both retail and restaurants, but with the NYC hotel market in a soft spot, Quadrum had to do its homework to learn how a new brand could differentiate itself from the already oversupplied market.
A local, social focus even fueled the decision to build a micro-hotel in the first place. Not only will the smaller room size (8 feet by 19 feet) allow for more units at a cheaper cost, Seth says, but it leaves more room for amenity spaces, rooftop lounges (pictured) and other common areas where guests can socialize.
One of the major catalysts of this desire for experience has been the rise of social media and technology, and Seth says Arlo hopes to keep itself unique and trendy with plugs everywhere, a “residential TV experience” and smart technologies for guests to check themselves in and print key cards by themselves. The brand’s also exploring having a “phone-only option,” but Seth says they’re still waiting to see that develop a bit more.
“We don’t really want to be pioneers on it,” he says, “because pioneers tend to get shot in the back with arrows.”
But the most important tech that Arlo’s utilizing, he says, is an application called Alice, a guest interface software that allows both guests and staff to be able to immediately submit requests and know they were received. Whether it's more towels or to fix a broken light bulb, guests won’t have to hope staff will remember what they asked for. This, he says, will help the new team run the hotels more efficiently.
