Hilton to Open New “Hostel on Steroids” Micro Hotel Concept

Hilton Worldwide is opening a new micro hotel concept described as a hostel on steroids.

In an effort to attract more Millennial-type travelers, Hilton is opening a new line of hotels that are smaller, cheaper and friendlier to the younger generation. CEO Christopher Nassetta told crowds at the Skift Global Forum that the new brand, which is yet unnamed, will be an “urban micro brand.”

“It’s very trendy in a sense, sort of like a hostel on steroids,” Nassetta said. “But a lot of steroids.” He later told Fortune that “the idea is to have super efficient spaces that are crazy flexible.”

Hilton’s brands continue to get physically smaller. In 2016, the company announced Tru by Hilton, smaller and cheaper properties than the company’s standard flagship hotels. The goal with these smaller hotels is to compete with AirBNB, which gets a lot of millennial business.

The details still aren’t solid on Hilton’s new micro-hotel brand, but the room size will be smaller than Tru’s rooms, measuring about 125 to 150 square feet. They’re also likely to be cheaper than Tru’s rooms, which start at $95 a night. The company also wants to attract locals to the new hotels and give tourists a feeling of actually living in the city rather than observing it as an outsider.

“It can’t be like Tru or Hampton where it has a consistent experience across the world,” Nassetta told Skift. “It’s got to have a very cool locally curated concept with a local partner in the food and beverage scene. It’s got to have a bar scene. It’s got to bring the community in.”

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