New Independent Hotel Group Fights Back on Industry’s Bigger-Is-Better Mentality
Photo Credit: The Curator Hotel & Resort Collection wants to preserve independent hotel identity (pictured: Hotel Zelos in San Francisco) before any further big brand takeovers. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust
Skift Take
Independent hotel owners have a new pandemic survival strategy with the arrival of the Curator Hotel & Resort Collection. The big brands need to address grievances over their high costs in order to remain competitive.
One of the largest U.S. lodging trusts Tuesday launched a soft brand aimed at thwarting the growing industry notion that the world’s biggest hotel companies stand to benefit from the coronavirus pandemic.
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust along with six U.S. hotel operators — Benchmark Global Hospitality, Davidson Hotels & Resorts, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Provenance Hotels, Springboard Hospitality, and Viceroy Hotels & Resorts — hope to improve the competitive edge for upscale independent hotels. Their new brand, the Curator Hotel & Resort Collection, aims to give better distribution to independent hotels without the high costs and brand standards associated with the likes of a Marriott or Hilton.
The new brand, which has been in development for two years, arrives ahead of an expected wave of hotel loan defaults and flood of interest from opportunistic investors pursuing pandemic-induced bargains. But it is less certain if big brands or smaller chains and indepe
