The Rise of Hotel Residences and Long Stays

Branded residences — private homes run by hotel and luxury brands — are the fastest-growing corner of high-end real estate: Savills counted roughly 910 schemes worldwide by the end of 2025, up 19% in a year. For travelers, the same boom produced something bookable: residence-style suites with kitchens, and genuine long-stay programs. The key is knowing which side you're on — buying, or booking.

Every unit count, price and market figure below was verified in July 2026 against developer sites, brand press releases and the published research of Savills and Knight Frank — an earlier version of this piece listed properties with no numbers behind them, and this rebuild corrects that. Where a developer or brand doesn't publish a figure, we say so rather than invent one.

Buy or book: the two sides of the residence boom

"Hotel residence" now covers two very different products, and most coverage blurs them. On one side are branded residences you buy — condominiums sold under a hotel or luxury marque, with the brand running the building. On the other are residence-style stays you book — hotel suites with full kitchens, brand-run rental villas, and serviced apartments with published long-stay rates. Both grew out of the same shift we track in our 2026 luxury trends guide: affluent travelers staying longer and wanting apartment scale without giving up hotel service.

The market, in numbers

Savills' Branded Residences 2025/26 annual report counted 764 completed schemes globally at the end of 2024 and projected roughly 910 by the end of 2025 — about 19% growth in a single year — with a contracted pipeline of 837 further projects taking the sector toward 1,747 schemes by 2032, and total units climbing from around 115,000 toward more than 200,000 by 2030. Knight Frank, which counts more conservatively, tracks 1,000+ developments across 80 countries and forecasts 59% growth in the five years to 2029; the two firms' totals differ because their definitions do, but the direction is identical. Knight Frank also puts the price premium buyers pay for a brand at roughly 20–35% over comparable unbranded homes. Hotel brands noticed: residences de-risk construction (units sell before opening) and lock in decades of service fees — which is why nearly every luxury flag now attaches homes to new hotels, a pattern running through our 2027–2030 predictions.

Six developments that define the category

1. Aman New York Residences — the price ceiling

Just 22 private residences sit above the Aman New York hotel in the 1921 Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, and they set the sector's price ceiling: the five-story penthouse sold for $135 million in 2024 — Manhattan's biggest residential sale of that year, reported by The Real Deal — and the final developer unit closed at $66 million in 2025. Owners get dedicated amenities plus the hotel's spa and restaurants downstairs.

Honest note: none of this is bookable — the residences sold out, and the only way into the building for a traveler is the (very expensive) hotel below. The residences' relevance to you is as the proof of how much buyers will pay for a hotel brand on the deed.

2. The Ritz-Carlton Residences — the biggest network

Marriott's Ritz-Carlton runs the largest branded-residence program of any hotel company; industry trackers count roughly 45 completed projects worldwide, from Miami to Bangkok, though Marriott doesn't publish one running consumer-facing total. Savills' research has repeatedly ranked Marriott's brands first in the sector by scheme count. The format varies enormously — some sit atop hotels, many are standalone buildings with Ritz-Carlton staff but no hotel at all.

Honest note: a licensed brand across ~45 projects means quality depends on the local developer, not just the flag. Two Ritz-Carlton Residences in different cities can be very different products; the brand standard covers service, not architecture.

3. Four Seasons Private Residences — the most established

Four Seasons reported 57 branded residence properties worldwide in its July 2025 growth announcement — the longest-running program in luxury hospitality — and is increasingly building standalone Private Residences with no hotel attached, announced for Washington DC, Lake Austin, Las Vegas and Coconut Grove. That standalone pivot is the clearest signal yet that the residence business now stands on its own economics.

Honest note: "Four Seasons service without a hotel" means no restaurants, spa or room service on site at the standalone projects — staff and standards, yes, but not the full apparatus buyers may picture.

4. Porsche Design Tower Miami — the non-hotel brand

The 60-story Sunny Isles Beach tower that opened in 2017 proved a brand doesn't need beds to sell homes: 132 units, each reached by the "Dezervator" — glass car elevators that lift residents and their vehicles into sky garages beside their living rooms. Developer Gil Dezer's follow-up, the Bentley Residences nearby, doubles down on the formula. Automotive and fashion marques (Porsche, Bentley, Armani, Bulgari) are now the sector's fastest-growing non-hotel segment.

Honest note: no hotel brand means no hotel service culture — a Porsche building offers spectacle and engineering, but the daily service layer is a managed condominium's, not a Ritz-Carlton's. Buyers comparing the two should compare staffing plans, not logos.

5. Six Senses Residences London — the wellness entry

When Six Senses opened its first UK hotel at The Whiteley in Bayswater in 2026, it attached 14 branded residences priced from £1,515,000 — small by sector standards, but notable as the wellness brand's London debut, with owners sharing the hotel's spa, 65-foot pool and social club. It's the template for the next wave: modest residence counts attached to statement hotel openings.

Honest note: at 14 units this is a rounding error in London's market; its importance is directional. And "wellness residence" premiums are the least tested at resale of any sub-segment — there's simply not much transaction history yet.

6. Baccarat Residences New York — the hotel-above model

The crystal house's Skidmore, Owings & Merrill tower at 20 West 53rd Street stacks a collection of around 60 condominiums (marketing says sixty; some listings count 61) above the 114-room Baccarat Hotel, directly across from MoMA. Residents use the hotel's pool, spa and Grand Salon — the cleanest illustration of the vertical hotel-plus-homes model, and of a heritage luxury-goods brand, not a hotelier, anchoring both.

Honest note: in resale listings, hotel-topped residences carry the hotel's fortunes with them — the brand premium cuts both ways if the hotel's star fades. Diligence the hotel's performance, not just the apartment.

The side you can actually book

For travelers, the residence boom's real gift is bookable inventory that behaves like an apartment. Three models with published terms:

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach — the hybrid

The clearest hybrid in the portfolio: 552 ocean-facing rooms and suites across two towers, including 246 suites — one to four bedrooms with gourmet kitchens, washer-dryers and living rooms — sold nightly like any hotel. A family gets residence scale, daily housekeeping and a Ritz-Carlton club floor without buying anything. Our room-types glossary unpacks how "residential suite" categories like these differ from standard suites.

Honest note: hybrid buildings mix hotel guests with owners and rental-program units, so finish and view vary by stack more than at a purpose-built hotel — confirm the tower and floor range when