Three conversion-led collection brands have launched in under a year. For chains, a new flag reliably adds signings, fees and network scale. It does not reliably add RevPAR. That gap helps explain why the launches keep coming.
On 17 February 2026, IHG Hotels & Resorts launched Noted Collection, its 21st brand, aimed at upscale and upper-upscale independent hotels and initially focused on Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia (IHG). Marriott launched Series by Marriott on 22 May 2025 and later announced U.S. agreements for the collection (Marriott). Hilton launched Outset Collection by Hilton on 6 October 2025 as its 25th brand, with more than 60 hotels in development and long-term potential for more than 500 properties across the United States and Canada (Hilton).
The pattern is clear: major hotel companies are adding brands as conversion opportunities expand. The harder question is why they keep doing it when the performance evidence for larger brand portfolios is mixed.
The public data points to an asymmetry. For a franchisor, a new brand reliably adds signings, fee income and network scale. What it does not reliably add is performance: CBRE finds that more brands have not translated into stronger RevPAR. That gap, rather than any proof of stronger guest demand, is the most consistent explanation for the pace of launches. It is an inference from the data, since no chain describes its strategy this way, but the evidence below supports it.
Table of Contents
1. Conversions now drive brand expansion
Major hotel companies added brands at a 7% compound annual growth rate over the past decade, lifting the average brand-family size to 24 flags by 2024, according to CBRE. Loyalty-program membership grew at a 15% compound annual rate over the same period (CBRE).
Company disclosures also demonstrate the importance of conversions, although the figures are not identical across chains. IHG reported that conversions represented 52% of room openings and 40% of room signings in 2025 (IHG).
Marriott reported that conversions contributed about one-third of its signings and openings during 2025. The company also said that 75% of its conversion rooms began contributing to fee growth within 12 months of signing (Marriott).
Choice Hotels reported that approximately 80% of its openings came from conversion hotels in 2024 (Hotel Investment Today).
The newest brands have been introduced within this conversion-heavy environment. IHG’s Noted Collection is focused primarily on conversions in the upscale and upper-upscale segments, and IHG has said the brand is expected to reach more than 150 hotels (IHG).
Series by Marriott was announced as a collection brand designed to preserve the identity of participating hotels while providing access to Marriott’s commercial platform. Marriott subsequently announced U.S. agreements for the collection in September 2025 (Marriott).
Hilton’s Outset Collection is an upscale conversion brand for independent hotels. At launch, Hilton said that more than 60 hotels were in development and that the collection had long-term potential to exceed 500 hotels across the United States and Canada (Hilton).
For a franchisor, conversions are the quickest route from signing to fee income, and a collection brand widens the pool of hotels it can sign. These launches do not, by themselves, prove why each chain created a particular brand. They do show that brand development is taking place alongside a large pool of potential conversion candidates.
2. Fees grew faster than rooms revenue in 2024
The economics of a larger network show up in fee income. CBRE found that total franchise-related fees increased by 3.5% from 2023 to 2024, compared with 2.7% growth in rooms revenue (CBRE).
In CBRE’s loyalty-program analysis, based on 4,187 U.S. hotels, loyalty-program fees averaged 2.2% of rooms revenue in 2024. The fees were highest at upper-upscale hotels (CBRE).
These figures do not show that any brand was launched to raise fees, and chains do not describe their launches that way. They do show the incentive: fee income has been growing faster than the revenue it is charged on, and loyalty membership has grown at twice the pace of brand count. A larger network of brands, hotels and members is a plausible way for a chain to sustain that.
CBRE’s Hotel Brand Performance 2025 report shows what a larger portfolio does not deliver. Although major hotel companies added brands at a 7% compound annual rate, the fastest-growing brand family by number of brands, growing at 15% annually, recorded the slowest median RevPAR growth, at only 0.3% annually since 2019 (CBRE).
CBRE further found that 28% of brands outperformed the 50-brand sample average since 2019, compared with 52% during the 2014–2019 period. This does not mean that every new brand dilutes performance. It does mean that brand count is not a reliable driver of performance (CBRE).
3. What chains gain, and what they don’t
The gains are concrete. A new brand lets a chain sign hotels its existing flags could not, whether independents that a core brand’s standards would exclude or underperforming assets in need of a platform. Conversions turn those signings into fee income faster than new construction can. Each added hotel also feeds the loyalty and distribution network, which is the asset chains sell to every owner.
The owner’s side of the bargain is what keeps this pipeline full. Conversion-friendly brands can reduce upfront capital expenditure, shorten the time required to reopen or reposition a property, and avoid some of the construction and interest costs of a new build. Reflagging gives an existing independent or underperforming asset access to a loyalty program, central reservation system and broader distribution platform. A collection or soft-brand format may also permit greater flexibility than a traditional core brand, although the precise requirements depend on the agreement and property-improvement plan.
What a new brand does not reliably buy is performance. The CBRE evidence above shows no link between brand growth and RevPAR growth, and the widening gap between top and bottom brands suggests that a flag’s quality matters more than the portfolio’s size. Where fees grow faster than rooms revenue, owners absorb the difference unless affiliation produces measurable gains in occupancy, rate, direct demand or operating efficiency.
The thesis has a limit. A chain is not indifferent to performance, because much of its fee income is a share of rooms revenue, and persistently weak brands eventually cap what it can earn from them. But that feedback is slow, while signings, openings and fee ramp-up are quick and visible. The incentive favors launching the brand over proving it.
4. The counter-case: genuine whitespace and owner demand
Chains and some owners argue that new brands respond to identifiable market opportunities. New collections can serve independent hotels that want access to a major reservation and loyalty platform while preserving their local identity.
Series by Marriott’s launch materials describe the brand as a way for regional owners to obtain access to Marriott’s commercial platforms while maintaining each hotel’s individual identity (Marriott). Hilton similarly positions Outset Collection around independent hotels rather than conventional standardized properties (Hilton).
Owners may benefit when a brand provides a clear proposition, an appropriate operating model and a distribution advantage that would be difficult to replicate independently. Conversion-focused brands can be particularly relevant to properties that need a recognized platform but cannot justify the capital requirements of a full-service or new-build brand.
The whitespace is real, and the pipelines show that owners are signing. But whitespace explains where a new brand can find hotels, not how fast chains keep launching them. Expanding conversion opportunities and rising fee income explain the pace better, and neither should be read as evidence of stronger underlying guest demand.
5. What the pattern says
Chains keep adding brands because the rewards of a launch arrive quickly and accrue to the franchisor: signings, conversion-driven openings, fee ramp-up and a larger loyalty network. The costs of a weak brand arrive slowly and are shared with owners.
- What a new brand reliably delivers to a chain: a wider pool of signable hotels, faster fee ramp-up through conversions, and more supply behind the loyalty and distribution platform.
- What it does not reliably deliver: stronger RevPAR. CBRE found no such link, and fewer brands now beat the sample average than before 2019.
For hotel groups, portfolio expansion has become an exercise in corporate engineering rather than guest-led demand. A new flag is a powerful commercial instrument: it widens the aperture for signings, accelerates fee generation through conversions, and feeds the loyalty engine that underpins the franchisor’s valuation.
Whether those properties ultimately outperform is a secondary concern. The incentives are structurally asymmetric: the rewards of a launch accrue immediately to the parent company, while the friction of a stagnant brand is quietly absorbed by the owner. Until that equation changes, the conveyor belt of new collections will keep moving.
Data Source
- CBRE, Hotel Brand Performance 2025. Used for the 7% annual growth in brand count, 15% annual loyalty-program growth, the average of 24 brands per family, the 15%-growth family’s 0.3% median RevPAR growth since 2019, and the 28% versus 52% performance comparison.
- CBRE, “The Cost of Franchising – Core and Soft”. Used for the 3.5% increase in total franchise-related fees and the 2.7% increase in rooms revenue between 2023 and 2024.
- CBRE, “For Hotel Owners, Loyalty Program Benefits and Costs Continue to Rise”. Used for the 4,187-hotel loyalty-program sample and the 2.2% average loyalty-program fee as a percentage of rooms revenue.
- IHG, “IHG Hotels & Resorts Unveils New Premium Collection Brand, Noted Collection”. Used for Noted Collection’s 17 February 2026 launch, its designation as IHG’s 21st brand, its conversion focus, the EMEAA rollout and the 150-plus-hotel target.
- IHG, Full Year Results for the Year to 31 December 2025. Used for IHG’s 2025 conversion shares: 52% of room openings and 40% of room signings.
- IHG, 2025 Full-Year Results Transcript. Used as a supporting source for IHG’s full-year conversion figures.
- Marriott, “Marriott International and Hawkins Way Capital Announce Five Signed Agreements to Launch Series by Marriott in the U.S.”. Used for the September 2025 U.S. Series by Marriott announcement.
- Marriott, fourth-quarter 2025 earnings materials. Used for Marriott’s statement that conversions represented approximately one-third of 2025 signings and openings, and that 75% of conversion rooms began contributing to fee growth within 12 months of signing.
- Hilton, “Hilton Continues Rapid Expansion of Lifestyle Portfolio with Launch of Outset Collection by Hilton”. Used for the 6 October 2025 launch date, Hilton’s 25th-brand designation, the 60-plus hotels in development and the 500-plus long-term potential.
- Hotel Investment Today, “Choice’s Growth Focused on ‘Revenue-Intense’ U.S. Brands”. Used for Choice Hotels’ statement that approximately 80% of openings came from conversion hotels in 2024.
