Preferred Hotels Adds 28 Properties in Q3, Biggest Quarter Since 2024

Preferred Hotels & Resorts added 28 independent properties to its global portfolio between July 1 and September 30, 2026 — its largest quarterly intake since 2024. The new members span Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Maldives, and they push the brand's network, already the world's largest for independent hotels, past 600 properties in 80 countries.

CEO Lindsey Ueberroth framed the quarter as a growth milestone. "Welcoming 28 new members in a single quarter, our largest quarterly addition since 2024, marks an important milestone in the continued growth of Preferred Hotels & Resorts," she said, adding that the additions span "dynamic cities, private islands, mountain settings, and historic landmarks."

What does the membership model actually change for these hotels?

Preferred doesn't buy or operate anything. Independent owners keep their properties and join a soft-brand network that supplies distribution, quality standards through its Integrated Quality Assurance Program, and access to the I Prefer Hotel Rewards program, launched in August 2013. That loyalty scheme now counts 5 million enrolled travelers who earn points and tier benefits at more than 600 participating hotels. For a 45-room conversion property or a family-owned palazzo, membership is essentially a bet that global distribution and rewards visibility outweigh the cost of meeting brand standards.

The flagship additions

Six properties lead the quarter, each landing in one of Preferred's curated collections:

• UMusic Hotel Madrid (Spain, Lifestyle Collection) — 130 guestrooms and suites with integrated sound systems, connected directly to the restored 898-seat Albéniz Theater, plus a daily-live-music piano bar and rooftop terrace.
• Palazzo Trezza (Verona, Italy, L.V.X. Collection) — an 11-suite Renaissance residence in Verona's UNESCO-listed center, opened spring 2026, with its own historic wine cellar for Amarone tastings.
• Diamonds Thudufushi (South Ari Atoll, Maldives, Lifestyle Collection) — an all-inclusive private-island resort with 69 villas, some overwater with staircases into the lagoon, an overwater restaurant and a house reef with manta rays and reef sharks.
• Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club (Durham, North Carolina, L.V.X. Collection) — 271 rooms on 300 wooded acres at Duke University, fresh off a multi-year renovation, with an 18-hole championship golf course and the AAA Four Diamond Fairview Dining Room.
• THE FUJIYA HOTEL (Hakone, Japan, L.V.X. Collection) — Japan's first resort hotel, opened in 1878, with 120 rooms across four historic buildings, several designated cultural heritage structures; every room has Miyanoshita hot spring water in the bathtub.
• HOTEL BANOV TOWNSCAPE WUHAN (China, L.V.X. Collection) — a 45-room conversion of Ba Gong Fang Zi, a neo-Renaissance landmark from 1910 built by Russian tea merchants, with an exhibition hall on the China-Russia Tea Road.

The rest of the intake

The remaining 22 properties skew heavily toward Europe, with Germany alone contributing five: Parkhotel Bremen, Maison Messser in Baden-Baden, Hotel Kö59 Düsseldorf, Hotel Burg Schwarzenstein and Wald.Weit Rheingau. Spain added three, including two Legend Collection properties, BLESS Barcelona and Bless Ibiza The Site. Other notable entries include Nobu Hotel Los Cabos in Mexico, Palais Jamai in Fès Médina, Morocco, The Leela Coorg Forest Sanctuary in India, and Wymara Resort + Villas in Turks and Caicos.

The collections matter commercially. L.V.X. took 14 of the 28 additions, while the top-tier Legend Collection added five — a mix that suggests Preferred is recruiting at the upscale end rather than diluting it.

The Q3 pace signals that independent luxury owners still see value in soft-brand affiliation even as they guard their identity, and with intake running at its highest level in two years, Preferred's 600-plus network looks set to keep expanding through 2026.