HB ON THE SCENE: AC Hotels and Korres Freshen Up Guestroom Amenities

NEW YORK—With AC Hotels by Marriott’s first New York City location in the heart of Times Square, comes a new partnership for the brand: Korres x AC Hotels. The new in-room bath amenities line features Korres, a modern Greek apothecary offering natural beauty products. The line includes citrus fresh shower gel, citrus fresh body milk, aloe and pro-vitamin B5 shampoo and conditioner, and milk soap all found in guest bathrooms.

The products debut in the brand’s more than 30 hotels in the U.S., including the newly opened AC Hotel New York Times Square, which is also Korres’ first-ever U.S. hotel collaboration. The partnership will eventually extend globally to all of AC’s more than 120 properties. AC will also offer travel amenities kits, which will be available at AC Stores in select U.S. cities.

AC Hotels x Korres Breakfast
AC Hotels x Korres Breakfast

To celebrate the launch of the partnership, AC Hotel New York Times Square hosted a breakfast with Benoit Racle, senior global brand director of AC Hotels, alongside Korres co-founder Lena Korres. The breakfast table was complete with samples of the products, along with Greek yogurt for guests, which also happens to be one of the ingredients in Korres products.

“It was really about finding the right brand for AC Hotels. We really focus on the little details. It’s about why we do things,” Racle said. “We want to create an experience for the next generation of travelers, creating a place where people can be creative, be themselves and create a moment of simplicity and beauty.”

Racle explained that AC Hotels was looking to create a partnership with a brand that has the same core values—a brand that is modern, authentic and engaged. “Korres has had a strong family background, a strong point of view that says, ‘we’re a modern brand, we use all natural ingredients, we’re very careful of the environment on the skin and we’re very transparent on what we do and don’t do’,” Racle said.

Korres guestroom products
Korres guestroom products

Korres explained this, and why it’s so important to her and the brand to create a product that’s not only natural, but looks and smells great. “Aesthetics is a big part of our brand. When we [Korres] were born, natural products were so boring, everything was brown, everything smelled bad, you had to compromise,” she said.

Korres and AC Hotels’ attention to detail was also a driving force behind the partnership. Both brands embrace what Racle describes as “moments of elegance and beauty.” Further, Korres explained the importance of scent identity to both Korres and AC Hotels, which she deems as integral in creating a signature product and experience.

“Scents bring memories back, we associate good things and people with scents. We start smelling before we’re born, it’s a big part of who we are,” she said. Korres noted that much like a mother, whose scent a baby can recognize at a few months of gestation, AC and Korres will have signature scents that guests can recognize and associate with their experiences at the hotel.

“When guests arrive in their bathroom there is a little moment of elegance, fragrance and Europe in their bathrooms,” Racle said. “At AC hotels you have our brand commitment to you. You have this moment of poise, this moment of elegance and think I can actually work, relax and enjoy a moment of beauty. That was our promise to New York.”