Marriott International has announced the European launch of Series by Marriott, its global collection brand for the midscale to upscale segment, through 11 hotel signings across the United Kingdom and Italy. The move marks the company’s most direct acknowledgement yet that its European portfolio has lacked meaningful presence in one of the region’s fastest-growing demand segments.
The first European signings were secured with two regional partners: six hotels with Italy’s Amapa Group and five with the UK’s Splendid Hospitality Group. Both deals are structured around portfolio conversions rather than individual hotel affiliations, a deliberate design feature of the Series brand that distinguishes it from Marriott’s other conversion-friendly midscale offering.
Filling a structural gap
The strategic logic behind the European launch is candid. Jerome Briet, Marriott’s chief development officer for EMEA, has acknowledged that the company’s distribution in Europe has historically concentrated at the upscale and luxury end of the market. “We were missing that segment,” he said, referring to midscale. As demand for affordable, quality accommodation has grown across European cities, that absence has become increasingly difficult to justify competitively.
Series by Marriott was introduced globally in May 2025. It is designed to bring established regional hotel groups into the Marriott network while preserving their local identity: locally inspired design, neighbourhood-relevant aesthetics, and grab-and-go food and beverage options sit alongside Marriott’s distribution infrastructure and the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty programme, which now counts nearly 271 million members globally.
This is a meaningfully different proposition from Four Points Flex by Sheraton, Marriott’s other European midscale brand, which focuses on individual hotel conversions. Series is built for portfolio deals, allowing Marriott to add scale quickly by affiliating entire collections of properties under a single agreement.
The UK signings: Splendid’s London-anchored portfolio
Splendid Hospitality Group, one of the UK’s fastest-growing privately owned hotel companies, will bring five properties into the Series portfolio. The hotels are located in Earls Court, Euston and Kings Cross in London, as well as prime regional locations. Both organisations have indicated that further projects under Series by Marriott are already under discussion.
Splendid operates 24 hotels with more than 2,500 rooms across luxury, midscale and select-service brands. The group has an established working relationship with Marriott, having partnered on the introduction of Four Points Flex by Sheraton in the UK in 2023.
Nadeem Boghani, executive chairman of Splendid Hospitality Group, framed the deal as a strategic inflection point. “We are immensely proud to be launching Series by Marriott in the UK, which marks a new chapter in Splendid Hospitality Group’s growth story. This continued collaboration with Marriott reflects our shared belief that great hospitality is about thoughtful design, authentic experiences, and an unwavering focus on the guest.”
The Italian signings: Amapa’s coastal and city properties
In Italy, Amapa Group will convert five existing properties in Montesilvano, Peschici, Pomezia, Rimini and Venice into the Series by Marriott portfolio. The agreement also includes the development of a new-build hotel in Valmontone. The deal extends a broader relationship between the two organisations that has previously produced the Courtyard by Marriott Milan Linate.
Ezio Romani, chief executive of Amapa, described the partnership as a combination of local knowledge and global reach. “Through this agreement, we will combine our deep understanding of Italian hospitality with Marriott’s global expertise and powerful distribution network, creating benefits for guests across these properties.”
The owner value proposition
For hotel owners, Series by Marriott offers access to Marriott’s distribution engine and loyalty programme without requiring the full operational overhaul associated with harder brand conversions. This carries particular significance in the current European market, where owners are under pressure to reduce dependence on online travel agencies, whose commission structures continue to erode margins.
The conversion-friendly model also reflects the economic realities facing European hospitality development. Rising land and construction costs have made new-build projects increasingly difficult to underwrite at midscale price points, directing investor and owner attention towards repurposing existing assets. Marriott’s portfolio deal structure accelerates this process by allowing regional groups to affiliate multiple properties simultaneously.
Neal Jones, president of EMEA at Marriott International, signalled the company’s ambition to expand the brand well beyond the initial 11 signings. “We see strong potential to further expand the Series by Marriott brand across the continent, which has been created to bring established, regionally relevant brands and hotels into the Marriott portfolio with industry-leading revenue generation capabilities and affiliation cost structures.”
Midscale momentum across the portfolio
The Series launch arrives against a backdrop of rapid midscale growth for Marriott in Europe. Since entering the segment in 2023 with Four Points Flex by Sheraton, the company has scaled that brand to 40 open properties with more than 4,500 rooms across seven European markets. Marriott describes it as its fastest-growing brand in the region.
Alongside Series, Marriott is also progressing the European rollout of StudioRes, its extended-stay midscale brand launched in the United States, where developer interest from European markets has been described as significant. The combined push across three midscale formats suggests a structural strategic shift, rather than an opportunistic response to short-term demand trends.
For senior hospitality leaders, the Series launch raises a broader question about the competitive shape of European midscale. As Marriott’s global distribution and loyalty scale enters a segment previously dominated by independent regional operators and specialist budget brands, the pressure on unaffiliated midscale properties to compete on both pricing and direct booking capability is set to intensify.
