Skift Take
While soft brands aren’t a new phenomenon, the big hotel companies seem keener on them than ever. They may not represent a direct threat to luxury hotel collections but they increase the competition when it comes to wooing owners.
During the past few years, the soft brand phenomenon has been one of the biggest stories in the hotel industry. Brands like Marriott and Hilton, seeking to get away from their cookie cutter images, have been growing collections like Autograph and Curio. made up of upscale independent hotels.
In seeking out properties to grow their collections, it might seem that the big guns could potentially be poaching properties from independent hotel consortia like Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Small Luxury Hotels and Leading Hotels of the World. But representatives from these companies say poaching incidents have been rare, and that, for the most part, the growth of upscale soft brands has had little impact on their businesses. That said, all three have recently made moves that could, in part, be attributed to the developing competition.
Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), dating back to 1928, is the granddaddy of hotel collections. Its 375 properties are all independent luxury hotels. Ted Teng, the company’s president and CEO, is emphatic in stating “there is zero impact on The Leading Hotels of the World in terms of soft brands. They do not target the same hotel owners as we do. Our solution is geared toward family owners, many who have built their business over generations, where soft brands are a good solution for institutional owners.”
Jeffrey Sirota
