IHG Rolls Out New Suites Prototypes

IHG Hotels & Resorts on Tuesday unveiled new U.S. prototypes for its three suites brands, designed to allow for more guest rooms per property.

The prototypes, which IHG said would be available in the second quarter with the first properties to include new features set to open in 2025, “supplement–rather than replace–existing choices” for Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and Atwell Suites, IHG said in a statement.

The prototypes “emphasize space optimization and the potential for new efficiencies while retaining key features from current designs,” according to IHG.

The new prototype for upscale Staybridge Suites, which has about 325 existing properties with more than 160 in the pipeline, includes a slimmer guest room—13 feet wide compared with the current 16 feet—”engineered to house shorter-stay guests.” The prototype includes “streamlined kitchen equipment and fixtures and optimized millwork cabinetry,” enabling the slimmer design.

Midscale Candlewood Suites’ prototype also includes a slimmer guest room design, at 12 feet and six inches, compared with the current 15 feet and three inches. The prototype allows for as many as 12 new guest rooms in an existing footprint, according to IHG, and builds upon “the strong performance of the brand’s most recent design,” introduced in 2019. There are about 376 Candlewood properties currently open and another 150 in the development pipeline.

Officially introduced in 2022, upper midscale Atwell Suites this month opened in Austin, Tex., its third property, joining hotels in Miami and Denver. Atwell’s new prototype includes a one-story option with a reconfigured lobby, along with a slimmer room design—12 feet and six inches versus 16 feet and eight inches, allowing for up to 12 additional guest rooms in the same footprint. IHG has 41 Atwell properties in the development pipeline, it said. 

“Our new concepts reflect guest and owner feedback and enable new and existing owners to deliver our modern suite experiences—in various forms—to more markets without compromising consistency or quality,” IHG SVP of development of mainstream brands in the U.S. and Canada Kevin Schramm said in a statement. 

The new prototypes for now will be available only in the U.S. according to IHG, which added that they could be adopted in the future in Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America. “Nearly all” of the three suites-branded properties are in the Americas, said IHG.

Other new prototypes unveiled in 2024 include Hilton Worldwide’s Hampton and Choice Hotels International’s Sleep Inn.