Ian Schrager wants luxury for everyone with his own lifestyle hotel brand Public.
Chad Batka // New York Times
Studio 54 was arguably the coolest nightclub in the world and its success changed New York nightlife forever. Later, the Morgans Hotel in Manhattan opened and became the first “boutique hotel.” Both were created by Ian Schrager, the American entrepreneur who doesn’t like to follow the rules. Today, he focuses on the evolution of the lifestyle hotel industry.
“That’s what excites me. It’s the reason I get up every morning,” he says during a video call from his Manhattan office. “I want to create something unique.”
For the past 14 years, Schrager has done just that in partnership with Marriott when it developed the new premium luxury brand Edition.
The hotels are inimitable one-of-a-kind establishments, remarkable properties with a certain freshness that has made Edition perhaps the hottest brand in the Marriott portfolio..
But two years ago, Schrager announced his departure from Marriott to focus on and develop his own brand, Public, a lower-cost lifestyle hotel focused on inclusiveness and uniqueness at more accessible rates than Marriott’s Edition .
The timing is no coincidence.
Bold, unusual, fun: the Madrid edition by Ian Schrager.
Marriott
“There was a time when New York was more open, more democratic,” Schrager says. “Now it’s become too elitist.”
There’s nothing more boring than being in a room with only one type of person.
The press has called the continued proliferation of expensive private clubs a Members Only Maniaand it is this exclusion from the public that moves Schrager.
“They don’t understand,” he said. “There’s nothing more boring than being in a room with only one type of person.”
From exclusive to inclusive
Schrager has spent his career creating spaces where people from all walks of life come together.
From Studio 54, where celebrities like Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger danced alongside mere mortals, to boutique hotels like Miami’s Delano or bars like the Rose Bar, a nightlife destination that created long lines every evenings in front of the Gramercy Hotel.
It’s time to reactivate this inclusive atmosphere, he says.
“And it’s probably the most important idea I’ve ever had.” Making luxury available and accessible to everyone is something of a modern democratic ideal,” says Schrager.
And by available luxury, he doesn’t mean high-end amenities or opulence of design.
“Luxury is no longer about material things; it’s a feeling, being able to enjoy, relax and feel safe. »
“We all like to let it all out and have fun when we can. It’s been this way for 5,000 years, and I don’t think it will ever change,” he adds.
Tapping into the fastest growing sector of the hospitality industry
Schrager’s decision to move away from Marriott to focus on Public comes at a time when the lifestyle hotel sector is booming. one of the fastest growing industry segmentsespecially among young travelers.
Lifestyle hotels combine the uniqueness of service or experiences typically found in a boutique hotel with the affordability and scalability of a hotel chain. Most are forward-thinking and have a unique story to tell their guests.
Younger travelers flock to them because they tend to favor authentic, unique experiences over the standardized services of common hotel chains and enjoy socializing or people-watching in large common spaces.
Schrager’s floor plans often feature large public spaces to encourage guests to get out and socialize, to simply “let loose and be free, without fear of reprisal.”
Optical illusion: the unique escalator that takes guests to the reception of the Public Hotel.
Public hotel
Popular with the public
Schrager’s first Public opened in 2017 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and quickly became a hot spot for locals and tourists.
Upon arrival, guests were greeted by a massive neon-lit escalator, and the 20-second ride through a shiny black tunnel quickly became a prime selfie spot. Once upstairs, plush furnishings, lush greenery, and a moody palette of dark wood and rich copper made for a cozy, clubby evening, a highly unusual space in the middle of the then somewhat shady Lower East Side that resonated with the crowd and wowed the media. with its luxurious design.
Four years ago, due to the pandemic, the hotel was forced to close its doors, but recently reopened with new F&B concepts.
Among them is the boudoir-style cocktail bar Two fifteena collaboration between Schrager and fellow nightlife veteran Nur Khan, his former business partner at the Gramercy Hotel’s Rose Bar.
Schrager reveals plans for third location
His second Public is expected to open this year on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and he is currently working on a third location in Miami.
Each hotel will be distinctive, he says, because what works in New York will never work on the West Coast.
“Los Angeles will have that laid-back, sunny energy that you only find there. This will look glamorous without being over the top. People will come in and feel like it’s their space, whether they’re staying there or coming in for a drink.
How does it create the feeling of “place to be” in such different properties?
“Everything is done step by step and instinctively, each time, a bit like a woman when she gets dressed to go out in the evening. She puts on makeup first. Next, she chooses a dress from her closet, then chooses the earrings that go with her dress, later the shoes. At the end, she adds a little perfume and suddenly: boom! Her look is perfect.
The problem with this process, he says, is that there are no rules and he can’t determine what will work.
“I try lots of different things and feel if it works or not. But I only know that when I see a reaction. The way people enter a space, the way they move, the way they mix.
A typical Studio 54 scene with Halston, Bianca Jagger, Jack Haley, Jr., Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol (left to right)
Getty Images
The future of lifestyle
Schrager’s impact on the hospitality industry began long before Public, with Morgans on Madison Avenue in 1984.
“At the time, my partner Steve Rubell and I wanted to create a hotel for our generation – not my parents or grandparents. We wanted something that had never been done before,” he says.
Morgans were a new thing at the time. “Steve explained it to the press that day: where other hotels were like department stores trying to please everyone, ours was more like a boutique on Madison Avenue. Ours had a big attitude and it definitely wasn’t for everyone.
The term boutique has become synonymous with uniqueness and individuality, and today almost every major hotel company has their own version of a “boutique” brand.
Fast forward to 2025 and media and guests alike are eager to see how Schrager’s shift from boutique luxury to inclusive lifestyle could once again set the standards for hospitality.
“I believe in the idea of Public,” declares the American entrepreneur. “At the end of the day, we are all selling the same thing: a bed for the night. But it’s the little things together that make a hotel experience so special.