Dive Brief:
- Graduate Hotels made its Texas debut with a Dallas property directly across from Southern Methodist University, Hilton announced Wednesday.
- The 93-key property features decor inspired by the nearby university, a staple of the college town-focused lifestyle hotel brand, which Hilton acquired last year.
- Hilton is expanding the Graduate Hotels brand as part of a broader lifestyle push, which included the company naming Graduate’s former president, Kevin Osterhaus, its president of global lifestyle brands last year.
Dive Insight:
Nashville, Tennessee-based AJ Capital Partners — Graduate Hotels’ previous owner before Hilton’s $210 million acquisition — led development and design of Graduate Dallas.
The property is a restoration of the former Lumen Hotel that preserves the building’s original geometric, mid-century architecture. It features a lobby lounge, an outdoor pool and terrace, flexible event space and a Tex-Mex restaurant.
The opening comes amid Hilton’s broader push to grow its presence in the competitive lifestyle segment, with the company pledging to double its lifestyle portfolio to 700 hotels in the coming years.
Elsewhere in Texas, AJ Capital Partners is developing a Graduate hotel in Austin near the University of Texas campus.
Other recent Graduate openings include properties in Boulder, Colorado; Princeton, New Jersey; and Auburn, Alabama.
Speaking about Hilton’s acquisitions of Graduate and NoMad hotels on an earnings call last week, CEO Chris Nassetta said, “we’re super excited about how those are going, and the returns that we’ll get on them.”
Weakened U.S. RevPAR dragged the company’s global performance in the second quarter of 2025, Hilton shared in an earnings report last week.
