Hyatt Hotels is pushing forward with the growth of its Essentials brands, appointing a new global brand leader for the portfolio.
Jason Ballard has taken up the post, tasked with growing the suite of brands: Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Select, Hyatt Studios, Unscripted by Hyatt, and UrCove. These select service brands offer owners attractive operating metrics, while appealing to guests who seek style with value, and don’t want to pay for the standards and service a luxury hotel stay will deliver.
Delivering for guests and operators
“Hyatt is hyper-focused on elevating the guest experience within the Essentials portfolio and deepening engagement with our 61 million World of Hyatt members to deliver a best-in-class experience each time they walk through our doors,” commented Ballard. “I’m proud to lead a talented team driving our select-service growth strategy.”
With the established Hyatt Place brand, the focus is on international growth. The brand recently opened at Cancun and Toronto airports, and in Yucatan. Across northern America, there are Hyatt Place projects under construction in Kamloops, Kissimmee and in Sonoma Wine Country.
The brand is also growing across Asia, with upcoming openings in Nanjing and Shenzhen; while in India, there are openings in Vithalapur and Bhopal. In Europe, projects are in development in London and Bucharest.
Hyatt Studios, an extended stay format, has a pipeline of 70 executed deals, mainly across the US, and recently opened its second site in Huntsville, Alabama. Many of the recent signings across not just Hyatt Studios, but for the whole Essentials brands cape, are in locations that are new to Hyatt, building the group’s presence in depth, and in smaller cities and towns.
Meanwhile, Hyatt Select has signed more than 20 deals during 2025. The upper midscale brand has streamlined amenities that suit the traveller on the go – with a format that favours easy conversions of existing hotel properties.
Also building momentum is the Unscripted brand. A recent opening was at Latitude Suites in Tinton Falls, NJ, while the signed pipeline includes Allentown, PA, Durango, Colorado and Wichita in Kansas, where a 158 room property is set to open in autumn 2028, alongside the city’s Riverfront Stadium.
Growing in the US and across Asia
The group’s Caption by Hyatt is also making its way around the world, in selected markets. In the US, there are upcoming openings in Chattanooga, and coming during 2026, Roseville and Sacramento in California. In Asia, there are projects just opened in Sydney, and in Tokyo, along with plans to bring the brand to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
In China, Hyatt is working with a local partner to develop a localised brand, UrCove by Hyatt. Projects are already under construction in Bengbu, Foshan, Jinan, Nantong and Ürümqi, with BTG Homeinns taking the lead in delivering the upper-midscale brand properties. The combination of opened, under construction and pipeline properties already adds up to 15 hotels for the brand, as it gathers major momentum.
