The independent hotel has always faced an uphill battle, but as the downturn continues to deepen, especially at the luxury level, the mountain is even steeper. To help make the climb, seven luxury properties have banded together to form Kindred Resorts & Hotels.

The properties—The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL; Cameros Inn in Napa, CA; the Colonial Williamsburg (VA) Resort Collection; the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, MI; The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA; Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, FL; and Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa—all have compelling and similar stories to tell, but as individuals, the message wasn’t always heard.

“As an independent you really don’t have much of a voice in the industry,” says Steve Pelzer, executive vice president of sales and marketing at The Lodge at Torrey Pines and the spokesman of the newly formed Kindred Resorts & Hotels. “We don’t have corporate marketing dollars, our resources are limited. We also had very earnest conversations about the state of the industry. It is such a muddled landscape. The landscape is getting confused by flagged properties vs. independent properties, the public feuding between some flags and ownership and there was an unsettling feeling amongst the client—the group or leisure side: What hotel am I booking? What will it be like?

“We thought during this unique time in our business’ history, if there was ever a time for independent hotels to have a voice and tell their story, this was a group that had the story to tell." 

With a tagline of “authentic in spirit, distinctive in style,” Kindred Resorts & Hotels will attempt to provide a singular voice to promote each property through sales and marketing initiatives. Pelzer says the properties are “hard pressed to find a presence in the publications we’d like, but when you come together as a group, it becomes more affordable and you can send a much stronger message.” When the group launched last month, so did its new website www.staykindred.com. Upcoming initiatives will likely include ad buys, travel agent incentives, a rewards program or loyalty club, special packages and other marketing and public-relations promotions.

The idea for Kindred was born from the Resort Hotel Association, a member-managed insurance group featuring many of the same properties. What started informally there blossomed into Kindred. Each member of the new group has equal say and decisions are made by committee. Pelzer says Kindred will add some members, but not many.

“We’re not looking at becoming another Leading or Preferred,” he says. “I think it will grow, but we’re not getting into this as a money-making proposition. This is to have a voice and I don’t think you can do that when it becomes too cumbersome.

“This is about coming together and being scrappy and taking the best ideas and putting them forward, for the whole purpose of having a voice, especially when the message is as important as who we are and how we do things.”