I can confirm that the Novotel brand was created in France (in the 70’s ?) with a very strong family orientation. The Sofa bed in the room for the 2 kids staying in the same room as the parents, the pool and the most important : kids were staying for free (no overcharge for the kids and free breakfast). I still remember the commercials on radio when I was young “chez Novotel les enfants payent zéro francs”. All Novotel commercials in France were targetting families. Those hotels were very modern at that time and so it was somewhat a bit of fresh air in the French hotel market which was composed at that time of mostly independant hotels with some good ones but also some very bad ones. In link with that, the concept also pleased business travellers because they were sure to have a modern and clean room with a decent restaurant instead of the Russian roulette of independent hotels.