Minor Hotels is planning to add at least two new brands to capture independent hotels.

Minor Hotels is planning to add at least two new brands to its portfolio this year, while upgrading the new master brand identity for the group.

Ian Di Tullio, chief commercial officer of Minor Hotels, said independent hotel operators would like hospitality groups to convert their properties into branded hotels for efficient distribution.

He said the group will create two new hotel brands, one in the luxury segment and another in the upscale segment.

These soft brands would offer easier hotel conversion compared with hard brands such as Anantara and Tivoli, which have heritage and long criteria requirements, said Mr Di Tullio.

Hotel investors in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are interested in this type of management, he said.

Mr Di Tullio said that this was the time for leveraging the new master brand under Minor Hotels, to meet high customer expectations and technology and digital disruptions, particularly now that the group has global coverage with over 560 properties under eight brands across 58 countries.

Travellers can now book all the company's properties on the new Minor Hotels website and app.

The company has categorised its eight hotel brands into three segments -- luxury, premium and select -- while their identities are still maintained under the Minor Hotels umbrella.

As a part of the Global Hotel Alliance loyalty programme network, Minor has also streamlined its hotel brand loyalty membership into Minor Discovery, which includes more than 30 million members across its network.

The company also launched the platform Minor Pro for business-to-business customers, offering products and services to companies, event planners and tourism representatives. This strategy should help drive more direct bookings to the group's hotels, he said.

The group aims to add nearly 300 properties to its portfolio by 2027.

Most of the growth is expected to come from management agreements and franchising, said Mr Di Tullio.

Amid global economic challenges, the group operates hotels across the world with a balanced portfolio, which creates more stability than companies that focus on a single region, he said.