Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos completed 11 hotel negotiations in 2018, “the most deals we’ve ever done in a year,” said Senior Vice President of Global Hotel Business Development Todd Hricko.
He added for 2019, “we’re in the sixth month of the year and we’ve already done five deals,” including signing a 1,300-room hotel in Alicante, Spain, a 600-room hotel in Barcelona and 189 rooms in Madrid.
The company expects four to five hotel openings in 2019, including in October the unique guitar-shaped Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. That property also will include swim-up rooms opening out onto the pool.
“It will definitely not be our last guitar-shaped hotel. We will do others. We definitely have a high degree of interest to do others around the world,” Hricko said.
He noted high brand recognition worldwide helps brand development as does an “immense runway” around the world to introduce the brand to new markets. Currently Hricko said Hard Rock operates 28 properties “and another 35 (are) under some form of development.”
The company’s second hotel brand, Reverb, will open two properties next year in Atlanta and Sonoma, California. Since it first was announced three years ago, Hricko said, “Everything is different now, even the logo. We’ve been working for two years on the brand and are about to relaunch it and begin developing it all over the U.S. and Canada.”
He noted, “Where Hard Rock pays homage to the musical artist, Reverb is really about the musical fan, and really focusing on what a musical experience is coming from a fan.
“Once the brand has developed a personality, then we’ll roll it out to the rest of the world,” he said, adding that currently “about 60 additional Reverb hotels are in the pipeline.”
