A leftfield launch

Sometimes a brand launch comes at you from leftfield, and a concept that you would never have considered comes to life before your eyes. sbe’s decision to launch an aparthotel version of its Hyde brand was interesting enough, but I have to say I wouldn’t have predicted that a business park outside an airport in Germany would be its first location.

The Hyde brand in the US is synonymous with celebrity, luxury and the highlife – its clients are the sort of people who like to see and be seen, so not your typical corporate traveller aparthotel guests. Having said that, the LabCampus Munich Airport is not your typical business park. It is envisioned as a hub for innovation and creation, and even has its own slogan – ‘Connect, Create, Collaborate’.

When sbe founder Sam Nazararian spoke to SAN, he described the LabCampus as “a place where digital nomads, visionaries, specialists and developers from different companies and industries come together”, and he is bullish about launching the Hyde Living brand there. Click here to find out what else he had to say.

Hyde is a defiantly high touch brand, but at the other end of the spectrum, UK developer Southern Grove has revealed plans for an ‘autonomous’ aparthotel where the entire guest journey from booking to check out can be completed without any human interaction.

“The irony of unveiling an apartment block halfway through a pandemic, where guests don’t have to see anyone else, hasn’t escaped us,” said company chairman Andrew Southern. “Clearly, social distancing wasn’t what we had in mind when we conceived of The Workshops, but these units do operate almost independently. They are completely self-contained and can be accessed by guests without any human interaction.”

It is unlikely to be the last development of its type as social distancing protocols remain in play for some time to come.