Recent acquisition activity by major hotel chains led to a 10.1 percent year-over-year decline in the number of U.S. independent boutique hotel rooms in 2025, according to a new report.
Bardoul Hotel Advisors' Boutique Hotel Report 2026 details how the U.S. boutique hotel landscape has shifted as major hotel companies have launched their own lifestyle or collection brands or acquired existing ones—or, in most cases, both.
Marriott International acquired CitizenM in 2024, launched its midscale collection brand Series last May, and launched Outdoor Collection last September. Hilton Worldwide acquired Graduate in 2024 and launched Outset Collection last October. Hyatt acquired Dream in 2022, The Standard and Bunkhouse Hotel brands in 2024 and launched its Unscripted collection brand last June.
The report divides boutique hotels into indie, lifestyle and soft brands, the latter two representing the franchised segments in the United States. Between 2024 and 2025, as the number of independent hotel rooms declined double-digit percentages year over year, rooms in soft brands grew 4.3 percent and in lifestyle brands expanded 6 percent.
For corporates, independent hotels traditionally have offered an alternative to negotiating with major chains. As more independents join major flags, that opportunity is diminishing.
"From a buyer standpoint, independent boutique hotels or [those] that belong to a smaller chain are nice to have, and they're more willing to negotiate," Areka hotel practice lead Jean Tan told BTN.
Once added, however, "those independent boutique hotels don't gain traction quickly because they are unknown to travelers," Tan said. "The loyalty program, especially for road warriors, matters a lot."
Though more independents are finding their way into the portfolios of major brands, Tan pointed out that those properties often are overseen by management companies that still may be willing to negotiate directly with buyers who lack leverage with major chains.
Rate, Demand and Share of Boutique Rooms
The luxury and lifestyle segments have been significant growth levers for major chains, both in terms of inventory expansion and rate growth.
Hilton in January said it closed out 2025 with more than 520,000 rooms under development and attributed much of its pipeline growth to a rise in conversion activity and "outsized demand for luxury and lifestyle products." Conversions also accounted for 40 percent of Hilton's new hotel openings in 2025.
Average daily rate growth in 2025 at luxury hotels, up 5.5 percent year over year, outpaced rate growth across all other segments, according to CoStar data. The Bardoul report noted that luxury boutique hotels followed the same pattern, with luxury soft-brand properties posting a 6 percent rise in ADR from 2024, while it increased 3 percent at indie boutiques and 2 percent at lifestyle hotels.
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The Bardoul report noted that total boutique hotel demand increased 3.1 percent year over year in 2025, besting the 0.6 percent demand decline seen at comparable tier non-boutique hotels. (The Bardoul report does not include economy or midscale tier hotels in its figures.) Total boutique hotel occupancy was the same as at comparable tier hotels in the rest of the U.S., the report noted.
Though all the major chains are growing their soft-brand and lifestyle-brand portfolios, Marriott International proved to be the dominant player with nearly 68,000 lifestyle rooms and 42,596 soft brand rooms at the end of 2025.
"Our portfolio is well-positioned to benefit from continued expected strength at the upper end as higher-end consumers remain resilient and continue to prioritize spending on experience and travel over goods," Marriott International CEO and president Anthony Capuano said during the company's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call.
The next closest chains for number of lifestyle hotel rooms were InterContinental Hotels Group, with more than 24,400 rooms, and Hyatt Hotels Corp. with nearly 13,000 rooms. For the number of soft-brand rooms, behind Marriott were Hilton (nearly 35,000 rooms) and Wyndham (more than 18,800 rooms).
The report used CoStar data and analysis from the CoStar, Hot Stats and Bardoul Hotel Advisors database.