Novotel's brand fact sheet says its customers are 51% business and 49% leisure. It is specifically positioned (according to the document linked) as a well-trusted and well-known upper midscale brand which targets a "mix of business / leisure, group or individual".

There is the family aspect, yes. But nowadays, it's an aspect, not the brand's sole focus. Just look at some of their flagship properties: Novotel NYC Times Square, London Canary Wharf, Bangkok Sukhumvit. Yes, they do target leisure travelers and families. Obviously, those flagship properties are in expensive locations and they want to fill these properties during weekends, the summer, over Christmas-NYE, etc. But they clearly need lots of business travellers for Monday through Thursday nights to make these flagship properties profitable.

Also, there are a ton of Novotels in airports and conference locations. You def need a good share of business travelers with early onward flights and/or conference attendants to make these work.

Interestingly, the Pullman brand (according to Accor's own profile) is not more business-y than Novotel. Accor says they got just 45% business customers. That surprises me a bit. On the other hand, I also had Swissotel in mind as a business brand. And indeed, Accor states that the share of business travellers in Swissotel is 53%.

Note that Rixos has got just 4% business travellers, Angsana has 13%, Sofitel has 31%. Those are mostly leisure brands. Novotel with 51% business travellers is relatively close to Accor's business-focused brands Mercure (60% business customers) and ibis (58% business customers).

Obviously, with very large brands like Novotel, Mercure, or ibis, the hotel focus and the target audience will vary quite a bit from property to property. Nevertheless, I would consider it somewhat misleading to consider Novotel a chain of family hotels or a family-oriented brand.