Meet the latest Hyatt Worldwide hotel brand: Hyatt Caption is a Select Service lifestyle brand targeting young travelers and promising “alluring and approachable spaces, conversation-worthy food and beverage and experiences that don’t begin or end at the hotel’s front door”. If that sounds like the right hotel brand experience for you (or you still don’t know what to expect), read on for more details and photos!

Hotel companies have continued to roll out new hotel brands, both to target new segments of the traveler market and to offer something new to hotel developers – it’s a lot easier to attract developers to build the first hotel of a new brand in a city – than being the 7th Marriott or Hilton…

Hyatt’s latest brand, caption is a select service brand in the mid-scale segment with an extra dash of lifestyle, similar to Marriott Moxy. 
Hyatt describes it as follows:

“Alluring and approachable spaces. Caption by Hyatt hotels will invite guests in with cozy rooms and common areas that are flexible enough to move things around and make the space uniquely theirs. Social spaces will be richly designed and unexpectedly put together – sparking conversation and giving guests and locals alike no choice but to stay awhile.
Conversation-worthy food and beverage. Eating and drinking at Caption by Hyatt hotels will be about more than what’s on the table. They will bring people together to enjoy the locale’s dynamic culture.
Experiences that don’t begin or end at the hotel’s front door. Whether guests try something new or meet someone new, Caption by Hyatt hotels will create the conditions for connections that matter – all-day drinks and sharable snacks; spaces designed for guests to plug in anywhere; flexible and multi-purpose spaces for lounging and small events; and a rotating calendar of do-it-yourself and hosted events from trunk shows to local beer tastings.”

Let’s translate what that means for us travelers:
“Cozy Rooms” means small – the brochure for potential developers spells out rooms of 220-270 sf, about 100sf less than a typical room in the US, but very much in line with typical city hotels in Europe or Asia, where you can find rooms as small as 150sf without looking too hard. You can see the prototype floorplan below – it’s very traditional, but looks comfortable. 

The decor is fresh, maybe youthful, but not as modern as other similar brands. Based on the prototype designs, you can expect an open closet and a small table & sitting area in your room.

Bathrooms are fairly large, with a wide counter-top and a shower. 

Social Spaces: The trend in hotels, like Marriott moxy, has been towards larger social spaces for people to work or hang out with friends. In the case of Caption, they are expected to be flexible. While I found the social spaces of lifestyle boutique hotels more inviting than your average hotel, few manages to draw in enough locals to compete with stand-alone coffee shops, bars or restaurants. Alas, I’ll consider a nicer lobby and lounge area a win!

Caption by Hyatt will also offer “all-day drinks and shareable snacks” – along the lines above, while it might not be your new favorite bar in town, it sounds like an upgrade from the many sad hotel restaurants & bars I’ve seen in many years of travel…

Bottomline: Caption by Hyatt will add a new option to your travels. Hyatt hasn’t announced any hotel openings, so they are still in the early days of developing this brand. 
As always, I welcome a fresh, new brand to the hotel space, even though it might make things a little more confusing to travelers trying to understand the differences. I’ll add it to my ever-growing list of hotel brands to try out in person and will keep you posted.
What do you think? Is Caption a brand you would like to try out? What do you like the most or the least?