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V Villas Phuket – MGallery – Image Credit Accor
Excerpt from Hospitality Investor
For the first 10 years of their existence, soft brands were largely an upper upscale and luxury phenomenon. But in recent years, several major hotel companies have been introducing soft brand collections in the midscale segment of the market.
Due to increasing demand among both hotel owners and guests, these companies, including Accor, Best Western and Wyndham, have moved “downmarket” with their new soft brands, reflecting the growing desire for a midscale price point product offering a non-standardized collection of personality-led hotels.
During the 46th Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference held in New York in June, several hotel CEOs mentioned that an upsurge of middle-class travellers is driving hotel companies and owners to embrace more affordable options. Adding moderately-price soft brands, then, is a way for hotel companies to appeal to the needs of the market, and to do so quickly.
The announcement heralding the introduction of Handwritten Collection in early 2023 noted that with creation of the soft brand, “Accor is broadening its unrivalled brand portfolio and midscale hotel offerings and will look to replicate the success it has achieved with the Group’s other collection brands across other segments.” Those collections include the MGallery Hotel Collection, in the upper upscale range, and Emblems Collection, a luxury soft brand.
Handwritten Collection, says Ben Cary, Accor’s vice president of development for the U.S. and Canada, “is a notch below what we already had, (made up) of stylish boutique hotels, perhaps with a smaller level of F & B.” Yet despite the original intent for a midscale collection, Cary notes that as the brand story unfolds in North America, Handwritten will likely emerge as an “upscale brand in competition with Tribute, Tapestry and the like.” That said, in Europe, he noted that midscale can skew higher from a product perspective, so that Handwritten hotels will encompass upper midscale and up.
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