Today’s traveller doesn’t separate business from pleasure. This professional extends a work trip into a weekend break, brings family on a conference, or picks a destination partly for its leisure appeal. Travel agents and corporate planners are already seeing it in their booking patterns, and the properties being requested are more varied than ever.

For forward-looking hospitality operators, responding to this shift is a necessity – and a trend that Ascott's multi-typology portfolio is designed to serve. With decades of leadership in serviced residences as its foundation, Ascott today operates more than 1,000 properties across over 40 countries, spanning convention centres, beach villas, heritage hotels and social living concepts.

MICE and extended stays: built for business, ready for more

Ascott's expansion into the MICE segment is not a dabble. Apartment-style accommodation, flexible living infrastructure and modern meeting facilities sit under the same roof – making its properties suited to everything from short corporate offsites to long-stay project teams, product launches and large-scale events. Two properties illustrate the scale of this ambition.

Ascott’s MICE foray brings online an impressive international convention centre in Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi, anchored by the city’s largest pillarless ballroom.

Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi rises on the shores of West Lake, Hanoi's most storied waterway and the heart of the Tay Ho district. It is part of the Tay Ho View complex, an architectural landmark whose interiors draw on Vietnamese cultural motifs. The hotel’s international convention centre is already operational, anchored by the city’s largest pillarless ballroom accommodating up to 2,000 guests, alongside 13 flexible event spaces. When fully complete in 2027, the property will add 1,165 hotel rooms and serviced apartments, a spa, gym, swimming pools, 10 dining concepts and a sky bar overlooking the lake.

Harris Hotel & Convention Serpong, one of Ascott's flagship Harris properties in Indonesia, brings meeting facilities, accommodation and lifestyle amenities under one roof. The hotel features 282 rooms, 11 flexible meeting rooms and a grand ballroom accommodating up to 1,500 guests, making it one of the largest hotel convention venues in Greater Jakarta. A Fit Zone, spa, swimming pool and dedicated Prive Club for Ascott Star Rewards members ensure guests can recharge as easily as they can convene.

Convention venues come complete with daily living and wellness amenities. Pictured: Harris Hotel & Convention Serponga

Boardrooms to beaches: resort concepts for the bleisure brief

Ascott's resort and leisure properties represent a deliberate expansion beyond the city-centre serviced residence model, extending the portfolio into beach destinations and nature gateways across Southeast Asia.

Somerset Pattaya marked Ascott's entry into one of Southeast Asia's most popular beach destinations. The resort's 324 units range from standard rooms to three-bedroom suites with fully equipped kitchens, catering equally to long-stay business travellers and multi-generational families seeking a holiday home experience on the Gulf of Thailand. Leisure facilities including a rooftop swimming pool, pirate-themed water park, children's playroom, gymnasium and Sky Rooftop Lounge alongside conference facilities for groups that need both. The Pattaya Beach is a 450-metre walk away.

A breezier resort model at Oakwood Halong entices long-stay guests and leisure travellers alike.

Oakwood Halong’s 86 villas sit steps from Bai Chay beach at the gateway to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province. Villas range from one-bedroom garden-view units to five-bedroom Presidential Pool Villas, each with a private garden and fully equipped kitchen. Facilities include two outdoor pools, a Serenity Spa, Kids' Club, pickleball court and three dining venues, with meeting rooms available for corporate groups combining a team event with Ha Long Bay access. The resort setting makes it equally suited to incentive programmes and family holidays.

Lasong Hotel & Villas Sam Son by The Unlimited Collection sits at the confluence of the Ma River and Sam Son Beach in Thanh Hoa province, around three to four hours by car from Hanoi. The resort brings together 68 boutique hotel rooms, 20 private pool villas and a further 190 rooms in the Sky Vista tower. Dining spans coastal Vietnamese, international and plant-based cuisine, alongside two bars and a 430 square metre Harbour Ballroom. The wellness centrepiece is a 14-step Korean jjimjilbang, complemented by a four-season pool and La Bong Spa. A strong fit for wellness retreats, family holidays and corporate groups seeking a culturally immersive coastal escape on Vietnam's northern coast.

Restorative concepts at Lasong Hotel & Villas Sam Son by The Unlimited Collection cater to the whole family in tranquil locations beyond urban centres.

Heritage and community: properties with a sense of place

Not every traveller measures a stay by its facilities. For travellers seeking genuine connection to a destination, Ascott's culturally rooted properties offer something different. 

lyf Chinatown Singapore is built around a social living concept, with a shared kitchen, laundromat hangout, co-working spaces and community programming that pull guests out of their rooms and into the neighbourhood. The property sits in the heart of one of Singapore's most storied districts, where clan houses, places of worship, hawker stalls and shophouses are within walking distance. It’s a lifestyle-forward evolution of hospitality that speaks to digital nomads, creatives and experience-driven travellers who want their accommodation to function as a base for genuine connection, with both fellow guests and the living culture of Chinatown on their doorstep.

1926 Heritage Hotel by The Unlimited Collection takes its name from the year the colonial-era building was established, and the property in George Town, Penang wears that history intentionally. Restored with care, it sits within walking distance of Penang's UNESCO World Heritage zone, where street art, Peranakan shophouses and some of Malaysia's most celebrated food culture converge. Guests have access to a swimming pool, Sensorium Spa, gym, restaurant and bar, as well as meeting facilities, but the real draw is the destination itself.

Properties like 1926 Heritage Hotel by The Unlimited Collection open guests up to destinations through heritage and storytelling.

Supporting every traveller journey

Ascott's expanding portfolio translates directly into greater booking flexibility for both guests and corporate bookers. Whether hosting delegates in a convention-scale venue in Hanoi, incentive groups in Ha Long Bay, families at a family-friendly resort in Pattaya or a culturally immersive stay in Penang across the same year, Ascott’s portfolio can accommodate all three, delivering consistent recognition for frequent guests across MICE, bleisure, wellness and family travel under the Ascott Star Rewards loyalty programme.

Discover an Ascott property for every client need. Visit: www.discoverasr.com.