From the identity of independent hotels to the distribution power of major groups: the soft brand model is gaining ground in Italy. An evolution that concerns investors, operators, and, above all, the way guests experience the hotel.
A transformation is maturing in the Italian hospitality market that is less visible than a new opening, yet perhaps more significant in the long term: the relationship between a hotel’s identity and its affiliation with a major hotel group is changing.
The theme emerged with particular clarity during the meeting Are Hotel Brands the new tool to maximize investors’ returns?, organized by CBRE in collaboration with Minor Hotels on September 29 in Milan, in the spaces of NH Collection Milano CityLife. At the center of the discussion was not only a brand’s capacity to generate value for an investor, but a question that concerns the entire sector: how much can a hotel grow while maintaining its recognizable identity, yet entering the ecosystem of a major international group?
It is a particularly interesting question for Italy, where a substantial portion of the hotel offering originates from historic buildings, independent properties, conversions, and projects strongly tied to the territory.
Italy remains one of the most interesting hotel markets in Europe
According to data presented by CBRE, Italy today registers 308 million hotel stays, with an international component of 57%. Estimates prepared by the firm also indicate demand growth of 4.3% compound annual through 2030, while international demand is expected to grow by 5.3% over the same period.
Figures that help explain why Italian hospitality continues to attract international capital.
For 2026, according to CBRE, investments in the Italian hotel sector are expected to exceed 2.3 billion euros. But alongside the quantity of investments, the profile of those investing is also changing: since 2019, the presence of developers and owners with a vision oriented toward operational management and the long term has increased significantly, while the share of investment managers has declined.
It is an important shift because it moves attention from the property itself to the hotel’s capacity to function as a business, destination, and hospitality product.
Only one hotel room in five is currently affiliated with a brand
There is another figure that captures the particularity of the Italian market well.
Only 22% of Italian hotel rooms are currently affiliated with a brand, compared to 62% in the United Kingdom, 55% in France, 48% in Germany, and 46% in Spain.
The figure does not mean that Italian hospitality is less competitive. Rather, it describes a market structure still characterized by a strong presence of independent properties.
And it is precisely here that one of the areas of greatest interest for the coming years opens up.
Affiliation with a major group can offer an independent hotel access to international distribution systems, loyalty programs, revenue management expertise, and operational standards difficult to replicate independently. For the investor, it can also increase the asset’s financiability and liquidity in the event of a future sale.
But there is a problem: how to obtain these advantages without transforming a hotel into one of many?
Soft brand: the formula that seeks to reconcile identity and scale
The answer that is gaining the most relevance is that of soft brands.
Compared to traditional hotel models, in which brand identity tends to translate into more uniform product and service standards, the soft brand allows the property to retain its own name, design, and a substantial part of its own personality, while simultaneously entering the distribution and commercial ecosystem of a major group.
It is a formula particularly suited to the Italian hotel heritage: consider a historic palazzo transformed into a hotel, a contemporary residence immersed in the landscape, a resort built around the gastronomic culture of a territory, or a wellness property whose identity arises from its relationship with thermal springs, nature, and the local community.
In these cases, fully standardizing the experience would risk weakening precisely what makes the destination interesting.
The soft brand instead seeks a different balance: the industrial strength of the international network in service of the property’s uniqueness.
Authenticity also becomes an economic value
For a long time, authenticity and standardization seemed like almost opposing directions. Today the market is seeking a point of equilibrium.
According to what emerged from the Milan meeting, the capacity to preserve a property’s identity can become an element of value from an economic standpoint as well: a recognizable hotel can sustain a higher pricing positioning, distinguish itself in competitive markets, and prove more interesting to an investor.
It is not only an aesthetic question; in contemporary luxury travel, the guest does not simply purchase a room. Increasingly, the guest purchases a place, an atmosphere, a story, and a relationship with the destination.
It is a dynamic particularly evident in wellness hospitality. A spa may have excellent technologies, but what makes it memorable is often the way those technologies are integrated into the architecture, landscape, culture, and philosophy of the hotel.
The same holds true for dining, design, experiential offerings, and the relationship with the territory.
The real change is in the relationship between property and management
This evolution was also captured by Mirko Baldini, CEO Italy of CBRE, according to whom the value of a hotel asset increasingly depends on the capacity to integrate real estate vision and operational expertise.
It is a crucial passage. A hotel is not, in fact, only a property that generates income through room rentals. It is a complex machine in which distribution, pricing, reputation, customer experience, food & beverage, wellness, and commercial capacity directly impact performance.
The choice of brand thus becomes a strategic decision that can intervene on numerous levels: from distribution to loyalty, from revenue management to international positioning.
And precisely for this reason, there is not necessarily an ideal brand in absolute terms. Rather, there is the model most coherent with a given property, destination, and ownership strategy.
Minor Hotels: an increasingly diversified portfolio
Minor Hotels‘ perspective fits into this scenario with a particularly diversified international portfolio.
Gonzalo Aguilar, CEO of Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, emphasized the strategic role of Italy for the group, which already counts 60 hotels in the country distributed across seven brands. The stated strategy focuses on an asset-right approach, selecting brand and operational model according to the destination, property, owner, and market segment.
It is a philosophy that reflects a broader trend in international hospitality: not necessarily imposing the same model on every property, but building portfolios in which different brands respond to different needs.
Minor Hotels today has over 640 hotels, resorts, and residences operating or in development in 67 countries, with a portfolio that includes, among others, Anantara, NH Collection, nhow, Avani, Tivoli, and several other brands.
What changes for those staying in hotels
For the traveler, this transformation might seem a distant matter, tied exclusively to real estate investments. In reality, it is not.
When an independent hotel enters a major network, the guest may find themselves before an experience in which local identity coexists with global services and tools: loyalty programs, greater international accessibility, booking systems, service standards, and a broader commercial network.
The interesting point will be understanding how much this integration will manage to remain invisible.
The best outcome, for the guest, might be precisely to perceive the hotel as authentically tied to the place in which it is located, while benefiting from an international infrastructure that supports its quality and distribution.
A new geography of Italian hospitality
Perhaps the most interesting figure to emerge from the discussion between CBRE and Minor Hotels concerns precisely the still-unexplored potential of the Italian market.
With a share of branded rooms significantly lower than that of the main European markets, Italy still has ample space for new affiliations, conversions, and repositionings.
But the challenge will not be only quantitative: the real issue will be the capacity to protect what makes the hotel unique while inserting it into a global network.
For a destination like Italy, where heritage, architecture, landscape, gastronomy, and culture represent an integral part of the travel experience, this could become one of the decisive questions of hospitality in the coming years.
And, ultimately, for the traveler as well, the question remains the same one that now traverses the investment sector: how much value can a major brand create when it knows how to take a step back and let the place speak?
