• Washington Post, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:31 AM

Marriott International is launching a high-end, franchise brand called the Autograph Collection, Thomas Heath reports, that will allow independent hotels to maintain their character while using Marriott's reach to bring in more customers and trim costs.

Hotel owners will pay Marriott in return for using its infrastructure, which includes its reservation and Marriott Rewards system, as well as Marriott.com. Negotiations are in the works with 25 hotels to become franchisees by the end of 2010.

Marriott's marketing plan involves the development of specific hotel categories -- such as boutique arts, historic iconic hotels, resorts, urban edge lifestyle hotels and casino hotels -- to suggest what kind of experience guests might have, according to Don Semmler, Marriott's evp of brand management.

"The universe of independent hotels has a lot of variation, some good, some bad," Semmler says. "Our research tells us [consumers] want a trusted expert to help them navigate, so there is no disappointment."

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