Originally Posted by
MS02113
Not sure what you mean by "strictly normal," but even the U.S. Conrad properties are appreciably nicer than your typical Hilton, Marriott, or Hyatt property.
There are some OK Conrad properties in the US but it is definitely not a given that a Conrad will be better than the Marriott/Hyatt Regency/Hilton in the area. For example, the Conrad in Miami and the midtown Conrad in Manhattan are pretty bad hotels. Free market prices Conrad way closer to a Hilton than it does to a Waldorf Astoria. The Conrad Downtown in Manhattan is a reflagged Embassy Suites that underwent some renos lol. There are limited service hotels in NYC with better hard and soft products than the Conrads.
Originally Posted by
MS02113
I don't think anyone suggested that Conrad competes with St. Regis. Hilton would like to believe that Waldorf Astoria does, but in reality property quality varies too much, especially in the U.S.
I am saying that Conrad is not even in the same class of hotel as St. Regis which is itself a below-average luxury hotel brand. This is why critically Conrad is not a luxury flag. Even St. Regis is on the lower end of the luxury spectrum as it does not really compete with brands like Four Seasons.
IMO Hilton has destroyed Waldorf Astoria even more than Marriott has destroyed Ritz Carlton. Some of the rooms in the WAs in Boca Raton were, frankly, motel quality from a hard product perspective. Even the "flagship" WA New York was only a Forbes 4 star hotel. I'm not even sure this will change after it finally reopens with all of the renos. I toured some of the apartments there and was very unimpressed. There's also just such a small number of WAs worldwide (like 35 IIRC) so it is disappointing that this is Hilton's only true hard luxury flag. Given the nature of the LXR soft flag, I am not expecting this to change anything for Hilton.
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The truth about Hilton as a chain is that the supermajority of its portfolio is limited service. It has a small amount of full service hotels and an essentially non-existent luxury portfolio. Seems like a good option for business travel which is budget constrained but I could never stick with anything in this brand portfolio for leisure.
Also, not sure if this is the appropriate thread for this but it is interesting how infrequent travelers/regular people perceive the "prestige" of various brands. Many of my friends have never heard of St. Regis and think Conrad is worse than Hilton.