What’s Behind Banyan Tree’s Move to Launch Five Brands at Once

The first Banyan Tree Escape in Bali, Indonesia, opening in April 2022, offers a “naked” retreat in communion with nature. All photos courtesy of Banyan Tree Group

Garrya Huzhou Lucun, opened on November 9 last year. The brand is contemporary, minimalist and upscale

By Raini Hamdi, January 14, 2022

Since its inception in 1994, Singapore-listed Banyan Tree Group has been moderate about brand expansion, adding only three brands – Angsana, Cassia and Dhawa – to its portfolio. That changed last month when it launched, not one, but five new brands at once.

The hotel world is seeing more new brands, but not a lot of differentiation. To launch a brand that’s unique these days is an achievement; five would be genius.

When executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping introduced Banyan Tree 27 years ago, it was a groundbreaker. Amidst a rising Asia, Ho captured the world traveler’s imagination with a luxury boutique product that is steeped in Asian traditions and sensitive to the environment.

He also turned the humble Asian massage parlor into a spa destination, pioneered the sexy pool villa in Asia and embraced sustainability as a need, not a luxury.

But the pool villa and all that are “pretty standard” now, said Banyan Tree’s group head of business development Gabriel Gn at Hospitality Asia Forum 2021 held virtually last month. 

“That’s the way hospitality works. You bring a great idea to the market, everybody else is going to do it, and better, so you can’t stop. That’s the nature of the game.

“As a company we are trying to keep up in an evolving hospitality space,” said Gn.

Strategic Move

Adding vibrancy to its brands ecosystem may be timely and strategic for the company, which continues to see healthy growth of the classic Banyan Tree brand, but slower take-up for Dhawa and Cassia. Only one Dhawa hotel is in operation, in Cuba, although three more will open this year, including a rebranding of the Angsana Ihuru Maldives and two newbuilds in China.

There are only two Cassia hotels, one each at the group’s Laguna Phuket and Laguna Bintan integrated developments.

Of the five latest brands, two are extensions of the mother brand, Banyan Tree Escape and Banyan Tree Veya. The other three, Homm, Garrya and Folio, are modish concepts (see Banyan Tree Group Brands Timeline & Explainer below).

Folio, for instance, sees the company entering the microhotels space that is having a rebirth in the West in cramped hotel markets like New York and Paris. Joining an evolution of microhotels not seen since the Japanese invented pods and capsule hotels four decades ago, Folio aims to create “big experiences in small, elegant spaces”, said the company. Room sizes will start from 13.5sqm.

“It is our generation’s mission to build forward better together with our partners and guests, and redefine what essential, purposeful and responsible travel looks like in this next era,” said Ho Renyung, senior vice president of Brand HQ, of the company’s Stay for Good mission that underpins all its brands. The next-generation leader at Banyan Tree, daughter of Ho Kwon Ping, also oversees digital and wellbeing across the group, aside from branding.

No one Size Fits all

Chains like Banyan Tree are moving from a typical brand strategy of covering price points, to one that fits new travel purposes.

For example, Banyan Tree Escape and Banyan Tree Veya aim to satisfy travelers’ deeper need to embrace nature and well-being, respectively. Those two themes are widely believed to be trending in post-pandemic travel.

“Not every guest comes to Banyan Tree looking for the same thing,” said Gn at the forum. “Some want the ultra-luxury service, others want to be close to nature, or just the wellness experience. Even one guest has different needs on different occasions.”

On the other hand, Covid-19 has increased conversion opportunities in resort destinations and emerging second-tier tourism destinations, which is a case for why more brands are needed. Said Gn, “I don’t think there is a proliferation of brands. At the end of the day, most hotels are unbranded. Particularly in Asia-Pacific, where less than three percent are branded.

“We saw how much the industry changed when China came out of its shell. What happens when 100 million Vietnamese domestic travelers start going out, or when visitors to Japan, who expect great quality, discover that the market is insanely under-serviced, with so few hotels unbranded?”

Skeptics will disagree, insisting there is a brand proliferation that dilutes the value of brands. Perhaps Banyan Tree’s history of being an outlier will prove them wrong.

With a doubling of brands in the portfolio, Banyan Tree Group expects to double its footprint of 54 properties in 23 countries by 2025. In the next 18 months, it will open 19 hotels, compared with seven openings in 2021, which included the first Garrya Huzhou Lucun in China, Homm Bliss Southbeach Patong, Thailand, and the soft-opening of Banyan Tree Veya Phuket.

Hotels opening in the next 18 months will comprise three Banyan Tree, one Banyan Tree Escape, three Banyan Tree Veya, six Angsana, three Dhawa, two Garrya and one Homm, in the Maldives, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Mozambique and Saudi Arabia.

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