The venture will see an initial eight hotels across Australia and New Zealand in the next three years, growing to 15 properties by 2025. The group’s first properties will open in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in 2022, branded as Drifter – an Intrepid Hotel. 

Drifter plans to secure an East Coast Australia property in 2022 and to take the concept global with “sustainable owner-operated premium hybrid hotels in prime urban locations”.

Drifter Hospitality Group is raising an initial £41 million to acquire and reposition hotels across Australia and New Zealand “with the objective to grow the portfolio to £270 million over time”. 

Intrepid is a 50/50 joint venture partner with Drifter and is the “cornerstone investor”. The partnership marks Intrepid’s first move into the accommodation market. Pre-pandemic, the company carried 470,000 customers in 2019, booking more than one million hotel nights a year. 
 
Intrepid has created a new hotels division led by former managing director APAC, Sarah Clark.

She said: “We’ll offer high-quality, unique accommodation and sustainable experiences in the heart of buzzing urban CBDs and neighbourhoods. With travel reopening, people looking to reconnect, and the opportunity presented with city real estate, it’s the perfect moment to embark on this expansion phase.”

The hybrid hotels concept offers flexible room options including private suites and shared rooms, located in popular city neighbourhoods. 

Intrepid said: “The concept is popular with millennials, who increasingly seek experiential accommodation. Research in 2019 by commercial real estate company CBRE found that millennials are likely to spend more on hotels that Baby Boomers or Gen X, but that they seek a transformational and shareable experiences, such as the ones offered by the hybrid hotel concept.”
 
Intrepid Travel chief executive James Thornton added: “We’ve long recognised the potential to bring our knowledge of sustainable experience-rich travel and the international tourism market – particularly solo and millennial travellers – to the hotel sector.

“With Drifter, we’ll create truly unique hotels that travellers will love and the opportunity to grow across the region is profound.”  
 
The properties will be carbon-neutral, and sustainable practices will be implemented throughout, Intrepid added.