WorldHotels, a collection of more than 300 global independent hotels and resorts now part of Best Western, plans a fourth brand for its stable. The Crafted Collection will be composed of rebranded hotels from other WorldHotels collections and newly added properties from competitors.
Executives are assessing which properties will make it into the new collection, which will include properties from upscale to luxury segments, three-star to five-star. "It's more inclusive than exclusive," said WorldHotels president of North America Gregory Habeeb. The first selected are expected to be unveiled by June.
Selection criteria include four "core values," company CEO Kristin Intress told BTN: "immersive," "unpredictable," "tingling," and "exhale," the latter representing a place where guests can "just be."
Each Crafted Collection property also will be required to have a welcome gift that Intress said "should come from their local market, so you feel special in a new place."
About 60 percent of the properties in WorldHotels collections are located in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; 20 percent are in Asia/Pacific; and 20 percent are in the Americas.
"We're the only affiliation who has been purchased by a hard brand … versus a hard brand creating a soft brand," Intress said. "It's coming from a voice of independent hoteliers that don't want to give up that autonomy versus [what happens when] the hard brands create soft brands."