Dive Brief:
- Hard Rock International is bringing its Reverb lifestyle brand to Florence, Alabama, developing a new hotel in collaboration with Sak Capital Partners, the hotel company announced Thursday.
- Slated to open in early 2028, the music-themed hotel will offer 155 rooms as well as more than 2,000 square feet of meetings and events space. Guests will be able to “connect with the rich soul, R&B, rock, and blues heritage of the area,” where Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and Willie Nelson have previously recorded, according to Hard Rock.
- The hotel expands the Reverb pipeline, which includes several other properties under development across the country. Hard Rock is growing the brand, aimed at music fans, amid tight competition in the lifestyle segment.
Dive Insight:
The Alabama hotel joins Reverb’s pipeline of seven properties in development, including in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Pensacola, Florida. The brand has two open hotels in Atlanta and Hamburg, Germany.
Hard Rock is expanding the Reverb brand — designed to be “an energetic cultural hub for connection, creation, and inspiration among music fans, locals and travelers” — amid competition in the lifestyle segment.
As travelers increasingly value design and uniqueness as well as immersive experiences, more hotel players are entering the lifestyle segment, hospitality pros previously told Hotel Dive.
The Florence Reverb is near music-themed demand drivers including The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and FAME Studios. The new Reverb hotel will play top hits recorded in Muscle Shoals, and the hotel’s design will incorporate elements of the area’s music history, Hard Rock detailed.
Other hotel brands tapping into music-themed design and experiences to draw guests include Marriott International’s W Hotels, which renovated its W Austin in Texas to create “a music-centric entertainment hub.” DJ Kygo, meanwhile, opened a music-focused experiential hotel in Miami last year.
Beyond Reverb, Hard Rock is redeveloping The Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas into the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas.
