Waldorf rebrand & push

DAIWA Living Waldorf will rebrand its Waldorf Apartments portfolio to “Nesuto” under an aggressive strategy to more than triple the number of the brand’s rooms in Australia and NZ.

The new branding will be rolled out across 12 of the group’s 23 properties, including those at Woolloomoolo, NSW; Mounts Bay, WA; and Auckland Stadium in New Zealand.

The new direction follows the 100% share acquisition of Daiwa Living Waldorf in Nov by Japanbased Daiwa Living Management and Cosmos Initia.

The new shareholders have outlined a plan to expand the brand’s presence from 1,500 rooms to 5,000 by 2024.

Daiwa Living Waldorf CEO Mark Ronfeldt said the rebrand subtly references the group’s core Japanese heritage.

“Nesuto has been chosen to represent ‘nest’ in Japanese pronunciation, which corresponds with the warm welcome and safe, comfortable environment our guest will enjoy at each of our properties,” he said.

“One of our key objectives under the rebrand is to exponentially grow the Nesuto portfolio in the Australia Pacific region by redefining hotel and apartment hotel stays.

“We are working with savvy investors who have a vision as to what future infrastructure looks like in their area and understand the importance of having multiple business drivers around their investment.”

Ronfeldt said this was illustrated by Nesuto properties already under development, including a management agreement for a newbuild at Western Australia’s Curtin University and heads of terms agreements for properties planned in Brisbane and Melbourne.