Exclusive Hotel Feature: Back in October 2012, I wrote an article titled 'Will the lodging industry follow the airline industry' and looking at the last 24 months, it seems that my predictions were correct: So what happened since October 2012?

Three of the leading global hotel brands Marriott, Hilton and Rezidor have launched their own 'Collections' allowing individually owned, branded and managed hotels to join the global distribution network that these lodging companies have.

In this writing, I have chosen to focus on the larger global brands: Marriott and Hilton.

For those individually owned and managed hotels it is a great solution: Being part of a globally branded hotel group but still being completely independent when it comes to the day to day management of those properties.

Marriott was the first global brand to launch the "Autograph Collection" The definition Marriott is using on its own web site to describe the collection is: "The Autograph Collection is a remarkable group of upper upscale and luxury independent hotel" .

Currently there are 56 hotels in the 'collection' and another 31 in the pipeline. The beauty of a "collection" is that it is ideally fitted for take-over of existing hotels with minimal changes.

The next to follow in the coming months is Hilton Worldwide with the "Curio Collection" 

The definition Hilton is using on its web site to describe 'Curio" is:

"A carefully selected, global collection of distinctive four and five star hotels that offer travelers local discovery and authentic experiences in key markets" 

So far in the last couple of weeks, Hilton has announced two hotels and additional five hotels in the pipeline. 
What is the real difference between Curio and Autograph? I honestly cannot tell you the difference.  Maybe the brand Gurus of both companies can make a differentiation.  

What I can tell you is that both global brands have identified the great potential and huge growth vacuum in the market.

Both brands are interested in signing as many hotels as they can to their own systems. The way to go is with franchise agreements. 

The focus is to take-over existing hotels that could be added into the system almost immediately assuring immediate positive cash flows to the brands with no risk at all. Development of new hotels takes years and is risky.

Also in terms of management attention, running a 'collection' is far easier than a managed hotel or a franchised hotel.

We are looking at a strategic change in the way global brands see and market themselves.

These global hotel giants see themselves much less as management companies and far more as branding and distribution companies.

In my opinion, the best two most recent examples for this kind of take-over are:

• Marriott's Autograph collection new member - the Caribbean’s Most Popular Destination Resort -- Atlantis, Paradise Island. A Mega Resort with 2,300 guestrooms , 40 Food & Beverage outlets
• Hilton's 'Curio Collection' SLS Las Vegas with 1,600 guest rooms, 30,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, a collection of seven Fred Segal retail boutiques and nearly 60,000 feet of non-stop casino gaming action

The strategic focus of those 'collections' is to offer 'soft' branding and global distribution channels for individually owned, branded and managed hotels. It doesn't have to be just a single hotel bust can also be a local branded hotel chain such as in the case of the Italian based "BOSCOLO HOTELS" and the Autograph collection.

The direct distribution channel offered by both global brands to those individual hotels is a way to cut the huge distribution costs individual hotels spend on OTA's.

Let me share with you a concrete example: In a global gateway city such as Berlin, Germany:  an individually run lifestyle design hotel receives annually 74% from its total reservations via OTA's.

Effectively those OTA's control this hotel's distribution channels and pricing. 

One of the points probably many of you ask: what is the difference between those big brands "collection" alternative to well established marketing affiliations such as:

• The Leading Hotels of The World 
• Preferred Hotels and Resorts
• World Hotels

The answer to that is rather straightforward: Loyalty and global brand distribution.

Marriott and Hilton have some of the world's largest customer databases. According to Marriott they have 45 million members in the "MARIOTT REWARDS" program.

According to Hilton they have more than 30 million members in the "Hilton HHonors" loyalty program.
On the brand distribution front, Hilton has a network of almost 4,200 hotels in 91 countries and Marriott has 4,087 hotels in over 80 countries.

On the other hand, those loosely knitted affiliation marketing organizations do not have these huge loyalty memberships and nor do they enjoy the brand recognition brands such as Marriott and Hilton enjoy.

In my view: depending on the actual costs involved which need to be specifically tested those 'collections' offer individually run hotels the solution of "the better of the two worlds". Enjoy being a part of a global distribution network but at the same time keeping your own style and individual brand identity.

Read the 2012 article 'Will the Lodging Industry Follow the Airline Industry?' HERE.

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted.

Joseph - Yossi - Fischer the CEO of Vision Hospitality & Travel - international lodging & Travel Solutions