IndeCorp Corp., the parent of Preferred hotels and Summit hotels, is launching a branded group of convention hotels in a bid to grab market share from big lodging chains.

The Chicago hotel company plans to launch its Conference Collection brand of hotels during the next month, said Peter Cass, IndeCorp's president and chief executive. Currently, 32 independently owned hotels have signed on to the brand, including renowned resorts such as the Greenbriar in West Virginia, the Broadmoor in Colorado and the Peabody Orlando in Florida.

The move comes as competition in the convention business grows feverish in the soft economy. Companies already were cutting back on meetings early last year. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many canceled meetings altogether or postponed them for months, leaving huge blocks of hotels' guest rooms and ballrooms empty.

Chain hotels, with large world-wide sales forces and lucrative incentives aimed at meeting planners, dominate the convention business, leaving independent hotels to focus more on transient travelers. Those transients pay more for their rooms but spend less on food and beverages, and are expensive to administer because they don't buy up whole blocks of rooms. These days, with hotel rates and occupancies under pressure, hotels are looking for more ways to fill rooms.

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