Soft brands are not new phenomena, but their popularity has grown in an age where, particularly for an independent-spirited hotel, being seen is as important as what is seen. The strategy is as simple as it is smart: Lodging companies, from Choice Hotels International to Marriott International, and representation groups, from Preferred Hotels & Resorts to The Leading Hotels of the World, develop brands or collections of hotels that allow independent properties to ostensibly retain their autonomy, but, for a fee, plug into the larger companies’ global reservations and loyalty systems, reaping the rewards that come with it, which include less dependency on online travel agencies and their high commission rates.
The migration is a boon for both lodging companies and representation groups, which have grown their rolls extensively, satisfying Wall Street, expanding fee channels and growing revenue.
The players are many: Choice Hotels’ Ascend Collection, Marriott’s Autograph Collection, Hilton’s Curio Collection, Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, Wyndham Hotels’ Trademark Collection, to name only some. And as the sector has grown, so to have the collections, stratified now to include everything from midscale up to luxury.
Chekitan Dev teaches branding and marketing at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, which makes him one of the foremost minds in the world of hotel branding. He calls soft brands nothing short of genius. “They are designed to offer the best of both worlds: individuality plus the commercial engine of a major brand,” he said, propping up their brilliance with an anecdote. A recent trip to New York landed him at the Crosby Street Hotel, which is owned and operated by Firmdale Hotels. Affixing a hard brand to a property as design-driven as Crosby, a favorite among Hollywood stars, would be a disservice. Instead, and unbeknownst to many who stay there, it’s affiliated with Marriott’s Design Hotels, a curated collection of more than 300 independent, design-driven hotels across the globe. One might even refer to this situation as a “super-soft brand”: Design Hotels’ brand indicia is nowhere to be found on the hotel’s website. “Now, that’s how to brand a one-of-a-kind luxury hotel in the world’s most competitive hotel market,” Dev said.
The benefits of soft brands to owners are plenty. Unlike traditional or hard brands, soft brands allow owners to maintain their property’s uniqueness and service philosophy, while reaping the rewards of a large commercial engine. Here, the rulebook maybe doesn’t fly out the window, but strict adherence to it is inessential. As Bruce Rohr, VP and global brand leader for JW Marriott & The Luxury Collection, put it, “The appeal lies in its balance: [hotels] retain the individuality and heritage while benefiting from global sales and marketing platforms, [loyalty programs] and the confidence that comes with being part of the world’s largest hospitality company.”
Meanwhile, renovation mandates and property improvement plan (PIP) requirements tend to be lighter and more negotiable. At the same time, these hotels frequently best their fully independent peers because they retain distinctiveness while tapping into brand-wide demand. Soft brands also often carry lower fees than traditional brands.
SMART SCALING
A win for owners is a victory for lodging companies, too. In a low-growth environment, stymied by higher interest rates and bloated construction costs, soft brands are a way for companies to achieve growth targets without a shovel digging into the ground. “The bar is very high for these companies to keep growing every year. They have to be a little bit more creative,” said Patrick Scholes, managing director, lodging and leisure equity research at Truist Securities. “There’s a lot of pressure from Wall Street to continue to find ways to grow net-unit growth.”
One lodging company heavily focused on NUG is Hilton: Its CEO, Chris Nassetta, has—perhaps apocryphally—said he coined the expression. Hilton launched its first soft brand, Curio Collection, in 2014, creating a collection of independent, upscale hotels. It is on course to open its 200th hotel early this year. So far, so good, said Brooke Thomas, brand leader of Curio Collection by Hilton, noting the pivotal role Hilton’s loyalty program—more than 226 million members strong—plays in convincing hotel owners to place their property under the aegis of Hilton. “It plays a major role,” she said. “Being part of Curio provides owners access to a loyal, engaged audience actively seeking out Hilton hotels.” Consider Hotel Astoria Vienna, a classic landmark originally built in 1912, which was rebranded and reopened as part of Curio Collection in May 2025, becoming the first Curio hotel in Vienna.
Beyond the built-in demand that comes from loyalty members, Thomas makes the case that an independent hotel turning to a soft brand is a cost saver in the long run. “It can help ease operations for owners, which is especially relevant to many independent hotels,” she said. “Owners gain stability, efficiency and access to a broader customer base, all while keeping the unique character that makes their property special.”
PLAYERS BALL
Traditional lodging companies continue to crowd the space with new options for independent hotels. Beyond Curio, for instance, Hilton has three other soft brands; its latest, Outset Collection, was launched in October. And while soft-brand launches may be all the rage (Marriott International has six, including the recent Series by Marriott targeting the midscale and upscale segments), they are not only the creation of the conventional lodging company.
In 1968, 12 independent North American hoteliers formed a referral organization, née Preferred Hotels Association, which today is known as Preferred Hotels & Resorts, owned by the Ueberroth family and boasting more than 600 hotels globally. Preferred, along with peers including The Leading Hotels of the World, Relais & Châteaux and Small Luxury Hotels of the World, act like associations, offering independent hotels sales and marketing capabilities and higher visibility through their networks.
Traditional lodging companies have been encroaching on this territory for years, but companies like Preferred mainly focus on the luxury and high-end/ high-style boutique segments, eschewing properties in lower chain scales. Preferred has a segmented architecture— Legend, L.V.X., Lifestyle and Preferred Residences—which its Chief Development Officer Philipp Weghmann said allows the company to position hotels precisely and purposefully.
Weghmann recognizes the competition; he also relishes it. “The luxury affiliation space has long been defined by a handful of legacy soft brands. It’s a highly competitive and tightly held segment,” he said. “That reality only reinforces our strength and staying power.”
Preferred doesn’t shy away from competition, looking at it as proof of the business model and, maybe most importantly, a shift in the way people want to travel, which plays right into their hands. “This surge reflects a clear shift in traveler preferences, as high-end guests are increasingly seeking independent hotels that offer more personalized, unexpected and locally inspired experiences,” he said. “This competitive context informs our growth strategy in a very intentional way.”
Recent additions to the Preferred portfolio include Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel, Calif., Al Habtoor Palace Budapest, The Cooper in Charleston, S.C., and Armani Hotel Milano. Relais & Châteaux has a similar lengthy history as Preferred, with formal roots stretching back to the 1970s.
Relais & Châteaux has always had the distinction of being food first; food forward: Cuisine is core to the association’s identity. Becoming part of that identity isn’t easy: Admission to Relais & Châteaux is highly selective, like getting into an elite Ivy League university. Of the approximate 600 applications it receives each year, only around 30 are accepted.
“Independent hotels often seek affiliation with Relais & Châteaux because we are not simply a brand; we are a movement built around a shared vision for hospitality rooted in local culture, sustainability and culinary excellence,” said its president, Laurent Gardinier.
Another significant player in the luxury independent affiliation space is The Leading Hotels of the World, which was started back in 1928 to serve leading hotels in Europe, before opening up membership to hotels across the globe in the early 1970s. Today, it counts more than 400 luxury properties worldwide. Like Relais & Châteaux, membership has its privileges. That is, if you can get in: LHW receives more than 600 inquiries a year and accepts only about 5% of them, noted Shannon Knapp, the organization’s president and CEO. The selectivity is deliberate, she went on to say. “We are not a unit-growth company. Where some brands grow through uniformity and scale, we are focused on bringing the right independent luxury hotels into the collection.”
A key distinction for LHW is that a healthy percentage of its membership is composed of family-owned-and-operated hotels. Villa d’Este, on Lake Como, in Italy, considered one of the finest hotels in the world, has been owned by the Fontana family since 1988.
One of LHW’s newest additions is one of America’s most storied hotels: The Hotel Chelsea in New York, whose hallways Bob Dylan once gallivanted through and where Sid and Nancy had their rows. Maybe not as a rock star, but in September, LHW introduced a partnership with American Express that offers U.S. consumer and business platinum card members complimentary Sterling status in LHW’s Leaders Club loyalty program, with perks including suite upgrades. Not all representation companies are alike. At the other end of the spectrum is a company like Keytel, a Spanish service firm that, though it doesn’t have the heritage or cachet of a Leading Hotels or Preferred, acts in a similar fashion to promote independent hotels through a suite of technology. “Independent hotels today face a historic opportunity,” said Xavier Cortés, managing director of Keytel. “Travelers are increasingly seeking authenticity, personalization and meaningful connections. Yet, turning those values into true competitive advantages often requires tools, expertise and global reach that are difficult to achieve alone.”
Cortés notes the engines powering the lodging behemoths, but said companies like Keytel have comparable resources that help hotels diversify their distribution, strengthen their direct sales and access international networks, while always preserving their unique identity. Keytel works with more than 3,800 hotels across 90 countries.
High-end independent hotels are big business. While lodging companies maintain their own collections in the space—for example, Marriott International inherited The Luxury Collection when it acquired Starwood Hotels & Resorts; Accor launched Emblems Collection last year— some, like Hilton, have gone the partnership route to expand in the space. Hilton has LXR Hotels & Resorts, but in 2024, it announced a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World. It’s a classic quid pro quo: Hilton Honors members gain new options to earn and burn points; conversely, SLH gets exposure on Hilton booking channels.
At the time of the announcement, Shaun Leleu, chairman of SLH, speaking about the partnership, hit the nail on the head when it comes to the broader context of soft brands. “It’s a win-win relationship,” he said.