All major hotel groups (Marriott, Hilton, Accor and IHG) are now following the same path — developing conversion and collection brands to respond to a structural problem shaped by four forces.

1. OTA dominance and weak loyalty

Online Travel Agencies now dominate hotel distribution. In Europe, Booking.com alone accounts for around 43% of online hotel revenue; overall, 71% of online sales go through indirect channels.
Globally, OTAs handled $266 billion in hotel bookings in 2024.

This intermediation erodes hotel margins through commissions of 10–25% and deprives brands of customer data — OTA masking policies mean hotels often cannot directly contact their guests.

Even within strong loyalty programmes, the most loyal Accor customers stay fewer than eight nights a year on average.

→ The issue: groups must widen their footprint and diversify their portfolio to attract guests directly and reduce reliance on intermediaries.
Conversions allow rapid expansion by turning existing hotels into brand assets rather than waiting for new builds — a key advantage in dynamic urban markets where land is scarce and new development increasingly constrained.

2. Ageing brands and outdated assets

Many legacy brands — Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Hilton — were created in the 1960s–70s, when car-oriented layouts and uniform design symbolised progress.

Today’s travellers, especially younger generations, expect distinctive, locally anchored experiences, not standardised rooms. Renovation cycles, normally every 7–15 years, have lengthened under tighter financing conditions.

This shift has not escaped the large groups. Accor has consolidated its lifestyle portfolio under Ennismore, which manages brands such as The Hoxton, Mama Shelter and 25hours.

In 2024, Accor’s Luxury & Lifestyle division grew by +19%, compared with +5% for its midscale and economy arm — proof that design-led concepts deliver stronger growth and profitability.

The group is even considering listing Ennismore, in Paris or New York, to capitalise on its faster expansion and higher valuation multiples.

→ The issue: to reach a younger, more design-sensitive audience, hotel groups must move beyond standardised models.
Conversion and lifestyle strategies provide the creative and operational flexibility that legacy brands often lack.


3. A fragmented global market

Despite consolidation, the industry remains highly fragmented.

Only 56.9% of rooms worldwide belong to branded networks; independents still dominate southern Europe — Spain, Italy and France in particular.
At the same time, urban land scarcity makes new construction slower, riskier and more expensive.

→ The issue: growth now lies not in building but in converting well-located independent hotels through soft renovation and brand integration.

This approach gives major groups rapid access to quality assets, while offering independents the benefits of global distribution, loyalty and yield-management systems.


4. The owner’s dilemma

Independent hoteliers depend on OTAs for visibility but lose margin to commissions.

Joining a global brand brings distribution power and loyalty customers, yet often at the cost of stricter standards and fees.

Soft brands and collections — such as Marriott’s Autograph Collection or IHG’s Vignette — offer a middle way: lighter brand requirements, lower affiliation costs, and access to global systems.

→ The issue: owners gain marketing reach and booking volume without sacrificing individuality or profitability.
For hotel groups, this model expands footprint efficiently, aligning local identity with global scale.


Still, as demue put it, the multiplication of collections and lifestyle brands carries a risk of confusion.

For guests, segmentation is becoming opaque; the difference between one “collection” and another often lies in marketing nuance rather than substance.

It will be worth watching, in the coming years, how much revenue these collection and conversion brands generate within the major hotel groups — and how gradually they overtake the legacy pillars, from Holiday Inn to Sheraton, marking a genuine turning point in the history of hospitality.