Hyatt’s Newest Brand: The Unbound Collection

With around 638 properties in its network, Hyatt is one of the smallest of the major hotel chains.

At a time when bigger is deemed to be better—witness the mergers of Marriott and Starwood, and Accor and Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissotel—Hyatt looks to be a prime candidate to either acquire another hotel company, or to be acquired itself.

Against the backdrop of such dramatic expectations, Hyatt’s latest growth initiative is decidedly underwhelming.

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Hyatt this week introduced a new brand, The Unbound Collection, “a global collection of unique and independent stay experiences.” Sounds grand, and maybe it will be, eventually. But for the foreseeable future, Unbound consists of a mere four hotels, one of which is undergoing renovation and won’t be back online until 2018:

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• The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas
• Hotel du Louvre, Paris, France
• Carmelo Resort & Spa, Carmelo, Uruguay
• Coco Palms Resort, Kauai, Hawaii (undergoing renovation)

For travelers who find themselves well served by Hyatt’s relatively modest network of hotels, the additional properties are a bit of extra icing on the cake, in the form of more opportunities to earn and redeem points in the Gold Passport program.

For those who need a more extensive network, The Unbound Collection is anything but a game-changer.

Reader Reality Check

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.