Indonesian hotel group, Archipelago International, has announced the launched of new brand which aims to offer guests a more homely experience.
The company, which already operates six hotel brands including Aston, favehotel and Alana, said the new Harper brand would offer “three-star plus and four-star newly-built hotels” in both urban and resort destinations across Indonesia. Properties will range from 100 to 250 rooms, while facilities will include the Rustik Bistro & Bar branded restaurant concept, plus executive floors with club lounges and ladies-only rooms in city locations.
Unlike other upscale chain hotels however, Harper rooms will be designed with a more homely feel, with “mix-and-match” furniture pieces, large sofas, cushions, rugs and wall hangings. They will replace work desks with coffee tables, “so guests can eat and work at the same time while sitting in a sofa”. Standard bathrooms will only have showers while suites will also have separates bathtub.
“In our increasingly anxious world, people want comfort and functionality. It’s no secret today’s guests want to be reminded of home and feel cocooned,” said Norbert Vas, Archipelago’s vice president of sales & marketing. He added that the Harper brand was designed to cater to “Indonesia’s growing numbers of international tourists… and an ever more sophisticated domestic clientele”.
Archipelago already operates the three-star Quest and four-star Aston brands, but Harper appears to mark another move by the company to differentiate its property types based on guest experience, rather than price. In 2011 it unveiled Hotel NEO – a two-star brand Archipelago said was designed as a response to the “cookie-cutter feel” of standard budget hotels. With Harper, Archipelago now appears to be aiming to create an upscale hotel concept with a non-branded feel.
The first Harper property will open in Kuta, Bali, “as early as this summer” according to Archipelago, while seven more hotels are “in an advanced state of construction” in Bandung, Banjarmasin, Bogor, Makassar, Samarinda, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.
Comments are closed.