Amar Lalvani risks breaking with the conventions of hotel aesthetics.
The Manner, which opened in SoHo this fall, avoids predictable hotel room art — in fact, it doesn't have any artwork on the walls. There's no time wasted checking in at the front desk. Perhaps most controversial is that there are no televisions in any of the 97 guest rooms.
“If you go to your dear friend's house, you won't be wasting your time in the room watching TV,” Amar Lavalani told New York Next.
“One of the best days I've ever had is staying at a good friend's house,” said Laflagne, who serves as president and chief creative officer at Hyatt following that company's recent acquisition of his brand, The Standard. “That's the feeling I want you to get here.”
Like at a friend's house, the lobby offers free cocktails, snacks, and books.
Even without artwork on the walls, Lalvani said the rich saffron paint palette is art in itself, Maner's aesthetic is not stark or sterile. The rooms, designed by Hannes Peer, feature luxurious velvet banquettes, leather bed frames, chandeliers, soft ambient lighting and an integrated Dampf sound system.
“Luxury, in the traditional sense, is very uncomfortable,” Lalvani, 49, said of typical hotels with modern lines sharp enough to clip or clog furniture that raises the fear of spilling something on grandma’s couch. “For me, luxury is the exact opposite… where you can walk in the door, take off your shoes, relax and feel completely at home.”
For example, Lalvani doesn't like having staff “hover” over him when he checks into a hotel – so guests are encouraged to check in for their stay online, then simply collect their keys from the reception desk hidden away.
He realizes that his biggest competitors aren't necessarily other hotels, but home rental platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo and Flipkey.
“I think the risk for our industry is that the next generation — my daughter's generation — when they're looking to travel, they're looking at Airbnb first and then they're looking for a hotel,” Lalvani said of people renting entire homes rather than individual rooms. . “The mentality has changed. We're kind of in danger because [hotels are] Secondary in their minds.”
It is not only the comfort and excellent service that will attract the attention of the younger generation, but also the ideal location.
Located in the old Sixty Soho hotel area (formerly 60 Thompson), The Manner is tucked away on a quiet street – so you can get a feel for what life would be like in one of the world's trendiest neighborhoods – but also steps away from some of the best shopping, restaurants and bars in City.
“The way I look at real estate is very opportunistic,” Lalvani said of the gut “feeling” that drives him. “There are economic factors involved in it. But fundamentally, it's a sense of place. Think Soho. There's no place like it… If you can get your hands on irreplaceable properties, you will.”
Lalvani chose to base his company and base himself in New York City because “people move fast and get things done” here, after years of traveling the world himself.
He began working for billionaire Barry Sternlicht's real estate investment firm, Starwood Capital Group, which owned the W and Le Meridien hotel chains before selling them to Marriott. When Lalvani was only 22 years old, he went with Sternlicht on a business trip to Thailand; After a few days, his boss asked him to move there and supervise the business in the area.
After two years in Thailand, Lalvani returned to the United States to attend Harvard Business School and then took a job in real estate development at Blackstone. From there, he returned to Starwood as global developer of the W brand and spent years traveling as far away as Doha, Istanbul and St. Petersburg.
““My whole career has been about not having a plan, it's things I love doing, people I love working with,” Lalvani said.
He met Andre Balazs, owner of the Chateau Marmont hotel, on a plane and ended up landing a job, helping Balazs turn his then-nascent brand The Standard into a global enterprise. In 2013, Lalvani, with money from investors David Heller and Sritha Thavisin — an old friend from Thailand who later became that country's prime minister — bought the company, expanding it to include Bunkhouse hotels in so-called second-tier cities like Austin and Louisville.
Several months ago, Lalvani sold the record label to Hyatt for $150 million with an additional $185 million in store if they hit certain targets over the next few years. He is still in charge of the new lifestyle group at the Hyatt, but the move frees him up to move from real estate to design. He calls the method his passion project.
Lalvani finds that being an actual hotelier and not just a CEO sums up his many interests: “It's architecture, it's music, it's culture, it's fashion, it's food. It's everything I enjoy.
“I think I'm really lucky… I only make things that I enjoy, and I hope other people enjoy them too.”
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series highlighting innovation in New York City across industries, as well as the personalities leading the way.
