Everyone’s talking about blended residential projects, where hotels have managed residences alongside them. That’s because the model is attracting enormous demand from buyers and just as much interest from investors.

Many of these projects were born that way. The newly opened One&Only in Montana was conceived as a hotel with residences from the moment it was a twinkle in the developer’s eye, and the same is true for One&Only in the Hudson Valley, where construction has just begun. In projects like these, the model is straightforward: sell the residences in advance and pull in a meaningful amount of cash, thereby giving the hotel a much stronger economic profile before the first guest ever checks in.

More revealing are the examples where the residences came later. For all its commoditization problems on the hotel side, Four Seasons knows how to do private residences. Their property in Las Vegas has been around for a long time, but they’re only now adding residences, and every indication is that they’re doing well in pre-sales.

In the niche where I operate, Blackberry Farm was a defining hospitality asset as a hotel for many years. It was only later that Blackberry Mountain extended that world by building residences. That’s what happens when something works and the owners and investors decide to build on top of it.

For these projects, the residential component keeps the guest inside a world they already trust. The buyer knows the service, knows the standards, knows the people, and wants more of the same environment without the friction of creating it by themselves.

The room begins the relationship, and the residential piece deepens it. A villa or residence gives owners and investors more control over who shows up, how they behave, and how much money moves through the property.

Some of the most intriguing possibilities in today’s market are operating hotels that don’t yet have a residential component, especially in the boutique segment where the brand is highly differentiated and guest loyalty is already significant. Hotels with real loyalty and strong performance already have the hardest part in place.

The market keeps chasing fresh dirt and glossy renderings because that’s where the headlines are. But some of the best blended residential opportunities are already operating as hotels, and the people who spot them early will be playing a very different game.