Worldhotels, a leading global group for independent upscale hotels, is growing its branded soft franchise solution as the ideal alternative to traditional franchising.

The offer is extremely competitive, as costs to owners are based purely on brand performance in total net room revenue delivery.

Since introducing the new business model in 2011, Worldhotels has already branded 15 hotels and plans to add another 20 by 2014.

Ingo Guerges, vice president global hotel development at Worldhotels explained why the new model was created:

He said: “Hotels kept asking us for a greater level of partnership - without the high operational interference of traditional upscale franchises.

“So we put together a solution that follows our motto of ‘If you own a hotel, it should feel like you own a hotel.’”

Worldhotels’ soft franchise solution focuses purely on the commercial side of the business, to generate and capture opportunities for room revenue growth from all segments and all distribution channels.

The model does not require any hardware standards, as Robert van der Graaf, Worldhotels’ newly appointed regional vice president full licence Europe, Middle East and Africa, illustrates.

“We’ve always said that standards don’t have to mean standardisation,” he stated.

“Our role is solely to make sure the brand and supporting systems deliver the best possible results for our hotels, without interfering in the actual delivery of an authentic upscale hotel experience.”

The model is built on over 40 years of successes of Worldhotels’ affiliation model and focuses on three areas - first of all full commercial support to maximise the hotel’s exposure under a global brand, secondly increase hotel market share through total brand performance, system delivery and finally distribution cost control to ultimately achieve a very healthy return on investment for hotel owners.