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For a long time, the hotel market posed a binary choice for owners: retain character and individuality as an independent hotel or sacrifice that to benefit from the commercial engine of a global brand. That was always an overly simplistic characterisation. But today, it is increasingly redundant. The real question for owners and investors is no longer whether “independent” wins, but how to combine the best elements of independence with the commercial power and reach of a global platform.
Enter collection brands. They are not new, of course. But with Handwritten Collection preparing to enter the UK with the upcoming opening of The Queen at Chester Hotel, I believe we are at the early stages of a significant acceleration in collection-brand growth in the UK market. Here’s why.
As with everything in travel, it begins with demand. There is a growing cohort of travellers actively seeking more distinctive, experience-led and individual hotels – properties with a strong sense of place, personality and story, rather than standardised accommodation. A recent Accor report suggested that for one in three European travellers, it is important to immerse themselves into the local cultures and communities they visit when they travel. Accommodation is an important element of this.
But crucially, travellers still default to brands and brand platforms. They value trust, familiarity, loyalty benefits and seamless booking journeys. In many cases, they start their search within ecosystems they already know.
Brand owners have responded by creating collection brands that capture this demand, offering guests individuality and character, while retaining the reassurance of a trusted global platform.
Rising construction costs have made new‑build hotel development in the UK increasingly challenging in recent years. When land, construction and financing costs are high, conversion becomes more critical than ever.
At the same time, strict brand standards and costly refurbishment requirements have created friction for many existing hotels – particularly those with strong identities that don’t naturally fit rigid brand templates.
As a result, more adaptable, conversion-friendly brands have come to the fore.
Collection brands represent the logical extreme of this trend, allowing hotels to retain the look, feel and personality that made them successful in the first place, while still accessing the strength of an internationally recognised brand and the systems and scale of a global group.
Owners are also increasingly clear‑eyed about the value of scale. Being part of a global ecosystem unlocks a wide range of performance levers, without forcing full standardisation.
Access to global demand and distribution. Powerful loyalty programmes that drive repeat, higher value guests. Centralised sales and marketing capability. Sophisticated revenue management systems. Procurement platforms and operating efficiencies. Support in decarbonising their operations.
The ability to tap into all of this while preserving individuality is a compelling proposition, and one that explains the accelerating interest in collection brands from both owners and investors alike.
Globally, Accor’s collection brands footprint now accounts for approximately 180 open hotels and over 115 in the pipeline. Owner demand is increasing, and so is traveller appetite for personality-led hotels at more attainable price points.
Within Accor, this demand is visible in the growth of MGallery Hotel Collection – now with more than 125 hotels globally – and the more recent launch of Emblems Collection. Emblems recently opened its first hotel – Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa, a retreat in the Wiltshire countryside within the Cotswolds – and is beginning to build up a meaningful international pipeline.
The launch and rapid international expansion of Handwritten Collection, and its forthcoming entry into the UK, provides further evidence of this. Just launched in 2023, Handwritten has already grown to over 40 opened hotels in over 20 countries around the world. Growth has been driven primarily by conversion opportunities, reflecting strong owner appetite for a collection brand that remains design-focused and host-led.
Despite this momentum, the UK remains under‑penetrated by collection brands compared with many parts of continental Europe.
Most collection brands still have relatively low density in the UK, leaving significant white space and a clear growth opportunity for collection brands.
Of course, not every hotel is right for a collection brand. The most successful collection properties typically share some common characteristics: a strong existing identity, a clear sense of place, engaged ownership and the ambition to remain distinctive rather than generic.
For Handwritten Collection specifically, we look for hotels that are warm and characterful – properties where hosts play a central role, meaningful personal touches shape the guest experience and no two hotels feel the same.
Owners considering partnering with a collection brand should be clear about what makes their hotel special and what they want to protect. They should think beyond branding alone and consider how a platform can support their long-term performance. Above all, I would recommend speaking to brand owners early and having an honest conversation about fit, flexibility and expectations.
Collection brands are becoming a powerful tool in the industry’s armoury.
They allow owners to keep the story, name and personality of their hotel, while accessing the reach, systems and capabilities of a global network.
Traditional brands will always have an important role to play. But alongside their enduring appeal, this growing segment is helping distinctive hotels – those that would never thrive under a traditional brand approach – to compete more effectively, capture rising demand from experience-led travellers and succeed while preserving the story, warmth and individuality that made them distinctive in the first place.
For a long time, the hotel market posed a binary choice for owners: retain character and individuality as an independent hotel or sacrifice that to benefit from the commercial engine of a global brand. That was always an overly simplistic characterisation. But today, it is increasingly redundant. The real question for owners and investors is no longer whether “independent” wins, but how to combine the best elements of independence with the commercial power and reach of a global platform.
Enter collection brands. They are not new, of course. But with Handwritten Collection preparing to enter the UK with the upcoming opening of The Queen at Chester Hotel, I believe we are at the early stages of a significant acceleration in collection-brand growth in the UK market. Here’s why.
As with everything in travel, it begins with demand. There is a growing cohort of travellers actively seeking more distinctive, experience-led and individual hotels – properties with a strong sense of place, personality and story, rather than standardised accommodation. A recent Accor report suggested that for one in three European travellers, it is important to immerse themselves into the local cultures and communities they visit when they travel. Accommodation is an important element of this.
But crucially, travellers still default to brands and brand platforms. They value trust, familiarity, loyalty benefits and seamless booking journeys. In many cases, they start their search within ecosystems they already know.
Brand owners have responded by creating collection brands that capture this demand, offering guests individuality and character, while retaining the reassurance of a trusted global platform.
Rising construction costs have made new‑build hotel development in the UK increasingly challenging in recent years. When land, construction and financing costs are high, conversion becomes more critical than ever.
At the same time, strict brand standards and costly refurbishment requirements have created friction for many existing hotels – particularly those with strong identities that don’t naturally fit rigid brand templates.
As a result, more adaptable, conversion-friendly brands have come to the fore.
Collection brands represent the logical extreme of this trend, allowing hotels to retain the look, feel and personality that made them successful in the first place, while still accessing the strength of an internationally recognised brand and the systems and scale of a global group.
Owners are also increasingly clear‑eyed about the value of scale. Being part of a global ecosystem unlocks a wide range of performance levers, without forcing full standardisation.
Access to global demand and distribution. Powerful loyalty programmes that drive repeat, higher value guests. Centralised sales and marketing capability. Sophisticated revenue management systems. Procurement platforms and operating efficiencies. Support in decarbonising their operations.
The ability to tap into all of this while preserving individuality is a compelling proposition, and one that explains the accelerating interest in collection brands from both owners and investors alike.
Globally, Accor’s collection brands footprint now accounts for approximately 180 open hotels and over 115 in the pipeline. Owner demand is increasing, and so is traveller appetite for personality-led hotels at more attainable price points.
Within Accor, this demand is visible in the growth of MGallery Hotel Collection – now with more than 125 hotels globally – and the more recent launch of Emblems Collection. Emblems recently opened its first hotel – Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa, a retreat in the Wiltshire countryside within the Cotswolds – and is beginning to build up a meaningful international pipeline.
The launch and rapid international expansion of Handwritten Collection, and its forthcoming entry into the UK, provides further evidence of this. Just launched in 2023, Handwritten has already grown to over 40 opened hotels in over 20 countries around the world. Growth has been driven primarily by conversion opportunities, reflecting strong owner appetite for a collection brand that remains design-focused and host-led.
Despite this momentum, the UK remains under‑penetrated by collection brands compared with many parts of continental Europe.
Most collection brands still have relatively low density in the UK, leaving significant white space and a clear growth opportunity for collection brands.
Of course, not every hotel is right for a collection brand. The most successful collection properties typically share some common characteristics: a strong existing identity, a clear sense of place, engaged ownership and the ambition to remain distinctive rather than generic.
For Handwritten Collection specifically, we look for hotels that are warm and characterful – properties where hosts play a central role, meaningful personal touches shape the guest experience and no two hotels feel the same.
Owners considering partnering with a collection brand should be clear about what makes their hotel special and what they want to protect. They should think beyond branding alone and consider how a platform can support their long-term performance. Above all, I would recommend speaking to brand owners early and having an honest conversation about fit, flexibility and expectations.
Collection brands are becoming a powerful tool in the industry’s armoury.
They allow owners to keep the story, name and personality of their hotel, while accessing the reach, systems and capabilities of a global network.
Traditional brands will always have an important role to play. But alongside their enduring appeal, this growing segment is helping distinctive hotels – those that would never thrive under a traditional brand approach – to compete more effectively, capture rising demand from experience-led travellers and succeed while preserving the story, warmth and individuality that made them distinctive in the first place.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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