Starwood Capital to launch hotel brand

Barry Sternlicht, chairman/CEO of private investment firm Starwood Capital Group and founder of W Hotels, is launching a "little brother" to his 1 Hotels brand.

According to a statement, Treehouse Hotels will be a "less serious" take on hospitality, evoking the "feeling we each had as kids climbing into a treehouse and making our own 'clubhouse' rules."

The brand will officially launch later this year in London and is poised to  subsequently expand across the United States. "It's really exciting to showcase our first property in one of the great travel markets in the world, London," said Sternlicht. "I believe this Treehouse, with its truly sensational rooftop lounge and bar, will fill a void in the London marketplace, which is missing a hotel that revels in the fun of it all and doesn't take itself too seriously."

Barry Sternlicht
Photo credit: Christopher Michel

Located across the street from the BBC headquarters, Treehouse London will have 95 guestrooms, including 15 suites, a penthouse restaurant and a rooftop bar. The restaurant and bar will be operated by The Madera Group, a Los Angeles-based international hospitality group that owns and operates venues in Southern California and Arizona, including Tocaya Organica and Toca Madera.

SH Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group, will manage the new brand's hotels on behalf of Starwood Capital.

Sternlicht, once the head of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, has continued developing new hospitality concepts. In recent years, he has invested in Lyric, a San Francisco-based real estate and hospitality company that designs, installs and operates flexible accommodations. (In April, home-sharing platform Airbnb announced it also would invest in the company.) He also invested in HotelTonight prior to the app's acquisition by Airbnb.