New business arm, “Hospitality Living,” will be dedicated to building high-rise urban developments.
WASHINGTON – WhyHotel, a DC-based alternative lodging service that operates pop-up hotels in newly built, luxury apartment buildings, announced the opening of a second office located in San Francisco, CA and the launch of a new strategic business unit for the company, Hospitality Living. Led by the recently appointed SVP of Acquisitions & Development, Will Hu, Hospitality Living will be dedicated to building high-rise urban developments that bring the WhyHotel pop-up model into buildings on a permanent basis. In addition to Hu, WhyHotel has tapped Miguel Oliveira as Chief Marketing Officer, and Rohit Anand as Experience Visioneer.
The launch of Hospitality Living expands WhyHotel's corporate footprint, with its first satellite office, on the West Coast. With a focus on building design, Hospitality Living will deliver an unmatched guest experience, while creating an unprecedented flexible-use asset class that can optimize between apartment and hospitality use. Both short-term guests and long-term residents will be able to benefit from the unique amenity platform that will be available across all of WhyHotel's assets under management. The company is targeting 2022 for the first delivery of Hospitality Living assets.
"Since the 90s, what the real estate development community has affectionately called 'mixed use' properties are in reality inflexible, 'stacked use' assets. Every space is separate and built for a single use," said Jason Fudin, CEO of WhyHotel. "At WhyHotel, we launched our pop-up product in 2017 to start to break down these silos. Our pop-up hotels bring flexibility to multifamily developments by creating synergies between hospitality and home. The launch of Hospitality Living will allow us to focus on the next phase of our company, the evolution of buildings into truly flexible assets. These high-rise projects will be built from the ground up and designed, entitled, and constructed to flex between uses, continuing to blur the lines between hospitality, home, work, and play."
To lead this new office and business expansion, WhyHotel has brought on Will Hu to join the company as SVP of Acquisitions & Development. Hu previously worked for Prado Group, a San Francisco-based developer and over his career has been responsible for over $1B of multifamily, hotel, retail, and office investment and development. In his new role, he will help develop and expand the company's business model to include building ground-up high-rise urban developments that will enhance the built environment for the evolving WhyHotel platform.
In addition to Hu, WhyHotel has also brought on Rohit Anand in an advisory role as Experience Visioneer. For the past 28 years, Anand has collaborated with the nation's top multifamily and retail developers, along with single-family builders, both across the country and internationally. Previously, Anand founded an architectural firm which has since merged into international practices. Most recently, he founded con.jun.ction, a consulting firm focusing on investing in and bringing innovative products and experiences to the market. At WhyHotel, Anand will be an integral part of the team tasked with visioning the experiences and spaces for Hospitality Living assets to deliver across the U.S.
Miguel Oliveira joins the WhyHotel team as the company's first CMO. With more than 22 years of experience, Oliveira has extensive background in digital, marketing, strategy, and operations. Prior to joining WhyHotel, Miguel ran the Global Digital Commerce and Marketing team at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and led the year-long integration of La Quinta Inns & Suites for revenue generating areas such as brand marketing, media, digital, loyalty, revenue management, global sales, central reservation systems and distribution. Previously, Oliveira held key Marketing and Digital leadership roles at Choice Hotels and Hotels.com (an Expedia Group company), and earlier in his career, he held management consulting roles with Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, BearingPoint and KPMG. In his new role, Oliveira will be responsible for all facets of marketing and revenue optimization.
WhyHotel's recent executive expansion has also included the addition of Heather Schwager as Vice President of People Experience and Logan Gaskill as Vice President of East Coast Operations. WhyHotel has internally promoted Nathan Raymond to Vice President of Real Estate and Partnerships and Jason Kamen to Vice President of West Coast Operations.
WhyHotel will continue to launch pop-up hotels in additional markets, while simultaneously growing its Hospitality Living real estate development business unit. The company also plans for an array of additional pop-up locations in newly built residential properties across the country, as well as additional satellite offices in metros across the U.S.
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