CBRE: Lifestyle motels gaining traction in Asia-Pacific

This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 22, 2026 – June 28, 2026

Hotels are not only a place to remain and dine. As travellers more and more search distinctive experiences, life-style motels are actually one of many fastest-growing segments of the worldwide hospitality business, based on CBRE Research.

In a May 28 report titled Gen Z Checks In: The Rise of the Lifestyle Hotel, the analysis agency notes that the general lodge provide in Asia-Pacific expanded at a compound annual progress fee (CAGR) of about 5% between 2015 and 2025. However, the variety of life-style motels grew almost 4 instances sooner at 19% yearly.

This development is predicted to proceed, says the report. While general lodge provide throughout the area is forecast to develop about 2% yearly between 2025 and 2030, life-style motels are projected to increase by about 10% a 12 months.

CBRE attributes this rise to a shift in client behaviour that accelerated after the pandemic. “Demand is being driven by post-pandemic consumer preference for experiential travel featuring authentic cultural immersion, unique and striking designs, as well as community-focused spaces.”

Gen Z preferences would be the driving pressure behind the growth in life-style motels, CBRE observes. This technology, born between 1997 and 2012, is presently the most important inhabitants group in Asia-Pacific.

According to the report, Gen Z accounted for 25% of the area’s inhabitants in 2025, forward of millennials (23%), Gen X (20%) and child boomers (15%). Gen Z is predicted to make up 27% of the Asia-Pacific inhabitants by 2030.

CBRE’s analysis discovered that spending on experiences outpaced spending on bodily items throughout the area. Spending on experiences is predicted to develop 7.3% yearly, in contrast with 6.5% on bodily items, between 2025 and 2030. Spending on motels is projected to develop even sooner, at 9.1% yearly.

Gen Z spending globally is forecast to develop by 27.6% between 2024 and 2030, the quickest of all of the generations, outpacing that of millennials (26.6%), Gen X (16.7%) and child boomers (15.2%).

The report means that Gen Z’s affect on journey demand is more likely to enhance. “Gen Z are increasingly opting for lifestyle hotels as the category appeals to their taste for experiential travel, authentic local culture and seamless technology over standard midscale offerings or formal luxury,” it says.

The analysis agency’s findings reveal that Gen Z, greater than the opposite generations, want to journey for expertise, impressed by social media and folks of the identical age group. “Discovering options and booking through digital channels is their norm. They have no strong attachments to any brand and constantly seek new and unique experiences.”

Unlike normal enterprise motels, life-style motels are designed round storytelling. These motels usually function daring structure and interiors, regionally impressed ideas, distinctive food-and-beverage choices and public areas that encourage social interplay, which resonate strongly with Gen Z customers, says the report.

CBRE highlights that social media performs a big function in driving the demand. Visually aesthetic areas, rooftop bars, inventive design components and experiential programmes present friends with extremely shareable content material, serving to motels to draw consideration organically by means of numerous on-line platforms.

Gen Z don’t search aesthetics alone. They additionally search for genuine cultural experiences to interact with native communities, uncover new neighbourhoods and take part in actions, says the report.

Technology is one other differentiator. Brands equivalent to citizenM and YOTEL have constructed a status for seamless digital experiences, together with cell check-in, self-service processes and smart-room expertise. These options align carefully with the expectations of a technology that has grown up with smartphones and on-demand companies, says the report.

Despite their fast progress, life-style motels stay comparatively underpenetrated throughout Asia-Pacific, says CBRE.

Markets equivalent to Singapore and Hong Kong have emerged as regional leaders within the life-style lodge development. In distinction, penetration is comparatively low in bigger markets equivalent to China, India and Japan, the place home lodge operators nonetheless dominate.

The report says life-style manufacturers have traditionally focused on the posh and upper-upscale segments. About 75% of life-style lodge rooms in Asia-Pacific fell in these classes in 2020.

Hotel operators are more and more recognising that life-style experiences attraction to travellers throughout a much wider vary of budgets. As a outcome, the idea is step by step shifting downmarket, says the report.

The luxurious and upper-upscale segments noticed their market share fall to about 70% by 2025, which interprets into progress for the upscale, upper-midscale and midscale segments.

CBRE notes that new manufacturers and ideas are being launched particularly to draw youthful travellers looking for experience-led lodging however are nonetheless price-conscious. This shift might show significantly vital for Gen Z.

“While younger travellers are drawn to lifestyle hotels, many [of them] cannot yet afford luxury products. Midscale and upper-midscale lifestyle brands offer a more accessible alternative while preserving the design, community and experiential elements that define the segment,” says the analysis agency, including that the development presents one of many largest progress alternatives available in the market.

The strongest outcomes had been recorded by the upper-upscale section, the place life-style motels generated a income per accessible room (RevPAR) premium of 13% over conventional motels. Upscale life-style motels achieved a 7% premium, whereas luxurious life-style properties recorded a smaller 2% premium.

The report says these findings point out that travellers are keen to pay extra for distinctive experiences and design-led lodging, significantly within the upper-upscale and upscale classes. “These hotels are also benefiting from stronger occupancy levels and higher average daily rates, despite often offering smaller rooms than traditional hotels.”

While alternatives are aplenty, the hospitality sector does include its personal challenges. The report says rising building prices throughout Asia-Pacific have made new lodge developments more and more difficult. The problem is prompting many house owners to think about conversion alternatives, moderately than constructing utterly new developments.

For buyers, the conversion of current buildings provide a sooner and sometimes less expensive route into the life-style lodge section. CBRE notes two main approaches, the primary of which entails becoming a member of collections of unbiased motels affiliated with main lodge corporations.

“This strategy allows owners to access global reservation systems, loyalty programmes and marketing platforms while retaining much of their property’s original character,” it says.

The second strategy entails changing an current property right into a core life-style model. “While this typically requires greater capital expenditure and more extensive design upgrades, it can also deliver stronger brand recognition and customer loyalty benefits,” it provides.

Meanwhile, broader lodge funding exercise is making a beneficial surroundings for repositioning alternatives.

The report has information displaying lodge transaction volumes throughout Asia-Pacific have surpassed pre-pandemic ranges, with a rising proportion of offers involving smaller belongings. Properties valued beneath US$100 million accounted for 42% of the entire lodge funding quantity in 2025, up from 31% in 2020.

“Many of these assets are independent hotels that may be suitable candidates for lifestyle repositioning. Strategic renovations, refreshed design concepts and affiliation with a recognised lifestyle brand can potentially unlock higher rates, stronger occupancy and improved asset values,” says the report.

According to CBRE, Asia-Pacific had round 120,000 branded life-style lodge rooms developed as new builds as at May 2026, in contrast with about 49,000 rooms added by means of soft-brand conversions and 17,000 rooms through core-brand conversions.

While the variety of new-build rooms was a lot larger than people who had undergone soft-brand and core-brand conversions, the expansion within the variety of transformed rooms had been significantly robust over the previous decade. The variety of rooms created by means of core-brand conversions had elevated 2.5 instances since 2015, whereas these through soft-brand conversions had expanded by greater than two instances. The variety of new-build rooms grew roughly 3.4 instances throughout the interval.

“The trend reflects a broader shift in investor thinking. While purpose-built lifestyle hotels remain attractive, rising land, labour and construction costs are making conversions an increasingly compelling alternative. Existing hotels can often be repositioned as lifestyle brands more quickly and with lower capital outlay than developing a new project from scratch,” says the report.

The report says the expansion of life-style motels signifies that it’s greater than a passing development.

“For hotel operators, this means designing spaces that feel local rather than standardised. For investors, it means identifying assets that can be repositioned to capture evolving demand. And for global hotel brands, it means building portfolios that extend beyond traditional luxury and business travel models,” it provides.

CBRE encourages lodge homeowners to think about third-party operators (TPOs), which might present extra bespoke and extremely aggressive choices than brand-managed choices. It says manufacturers are additionally extra open than ever to homeowners working with TPOs.

As Gen Z turn out to be wealthier and extra influential, the momentum created by this demographic is more likely to strengthen, says the analysis agency.

“The industry’s next growth cycle may not be driven by larger rooms, grander lobbies or more extensive amenities. Instead, it may be powered by experiences, community and a stronger sense of place — the very qualities that define the lifestyle hotel movement,” it provides.

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