Accor’s New Brand Says a Lot About the Future of Luxury Hotels

Another day, and another soft brand that tethers properties to a major hotel company but without all the design and standardization requirements of something like a Sofitel or a Fairmont, is entering the hotel orbit. 

Accor launched this week the Emblems Collection, a luxury soft brand of hotels starting with the 64-suite Guiyang Art Centre Hotel in China’s Guizhou province. If it seems like the soft brand pool is getting a little crowded, that’s because it is.

Emblems Collection joins Accor’s other soft brand, MGallery, and arrives after others like IHG’s Vignette Collection and Wyndham’s Registry Collection Hotels were announced earlier this year. Marriott and Hilton already compete in this space with several soft brands apiece. 

Has the hotel industry morphed from one with concerns of brand bloat to one of soft brand bloat? Maybe, but Accor leaders see their latest as a vital tool in making deals with luxury hotel owners during the pandemic recovery. 

“There are several competitors, but we are not frightened at all. We think it will be stronger,” Agnès Roquefort, Accor’s chief development officer, said in an interview with Skift. “Some markets like Europe are still huge indepe