Regent Bows out of Singapore as IHG Continues to Revive Brand
Regent Singapore: Sky atriums were big at the time, designed by the late John Portman. Photo: Regent Singapore
By Raini Hamdi, 17 October 2022
IHG will lose the management of Regent Singapore to Hilton, which will rebrand the hotel as Conrad Singapore Orchard.
This will be the second Conrad in Singapore, after the Conrad Centennial Singapore situated in the Marina Bay area.
Regent will reopen as Conrad in two phases from January 2023. Its full reopening as Conrad Singapore Orchard is scheduled for 1Q24 following extensive room refurbishments.
The hotel will have 440 rooms with minimum floor space of 36sqm, and 1,600sqm of event spaces. Currently, it boasts 10 restaurants and bars, including the popular Manhattan, Basilico and Summer Palace.
“The hotel has always been a hallmark of luxury hospitality and we are confident its distinct dining concepts, refreshed design aesthetics and world-class service will be further elevated through the Conrad brand and its globally recognized luxury standards,” said Pontiac Land Group’s CEO David Tsang. Pontiac owns both Conrad hotels.
Despite being a hallmark of luxury hospitality, or perhaps because of it, the property has had a checkered history and has seen serial reflagging as the Regent brand itself underwent several acquisitions. The hotel opened in 1982 as the Pavilion Inter-Continental, became a Regent in 1988, then a Regent-Four Seasons in 1992, then managed by Capella in 2019 after Pontiac bought the Capella brand from Horst Schulze.
Regent Hotels was started by Robert Burns with Japan’s Tokyu Group in 1970. Other legendary hoteliers including Georg Raphael and Adrian Zecha had a hand in shaping the brand.
In 1992, the Four Seasons chain acquired Regent. Just four years on, another chapter opened for Regent – and a confusing one at that — when Carlson acquired the name for new Regent hotels but maintained Four Seasons as operator.
Then in 2010, Formosa International Hotels Taiwan, which owns Regent Taipei, acquired Regent. Formosa’s chairman, Steven Pan, loves the brand but Formosa on its own wasn’t able to grow it. In 2018 it sold a majority 51 percent share of Regent to IHG (see this author’s interview in 2018 with Pan on why he sold Regent to IHG).
The deal fitted IHG’s strategic intent to lift its luxury offerings. Formosa, on the other hand, needed the chain’s scale and global distribution.
Roomful of Skeptics
But there’s a roomful of skeptics who believe Regent days are over, even under a global chain such as IHG.
Their crux is brand differentiation today, or the lack of, in particular with Regent, which has been tossed around like football (see the debate here and here on LinkedIn).
“If — and it’s a big if — IHG puts significant effort and more than a dollop of its capital into several well-located Regent developments, presumably with branded residences and, perhaps, another IHG brand [in the developments], there might be an opportunity for Regent to reclaim its place in the pantheon of luxury hotels,” said Michael Shindler, president at Chicago-based Four Corners Advisors.
IHG has since relaunched the brand with a new design philosophy, a specially created service style and a striking visual identity.
“I’m confident that our impressive new positioning and brand identity will allow us to continue to take the brand to the world’s best destinations and help position Regent as a real leader within luxury hospitality,” IHG CEO Keith Barr said a statement on the brand identity.
The chain signed its first Regent four months after the acquisition, a project in Kuala Lumpur owned by Multibay Development. Its target is 40 Regent hotels in operation from eight today (as of June 30), including the latest opening of Regent Phu Quoc in April.
There are eight hotels in the pipeline, including in Kyoto, Bali and, the most anticipated opening, Regent Hong Kong this year. A rebrand of the iconic InterContinental Hong Kong, this will return the hotel to its roots as a Regent when it first opened in 1980.
Gaw Capital Partners led the $938 million acquisition of the hotel from IHG in 2015. More tons of dollars than concrete ($300 million) are being poured into reimagining the hotel as Regent flagship for today’s customers.
In short, Regent Hong Kong’s opening can be expected to be the definitive “new” Regent showcase.
Enough perhaps to attract a new Regent in Singapore sooner than later.