Marriott International, Inc. launched The Autograph Collection, a new brand within the company’s global portfolio comprised of upper upscale and luxury, independent, hotels with distinctive personalities in major cities and desired destinations worldwide.

“The Autograph Collection will take the innovative approach of grouping these iconic hotels according to the unique experience that guests are seeking whether it’s a resort, historic hotel,  boutique arts, or urban edge hotel in a dynamic gateway city,“ said Don Semmler, executive vice president of brand management for Marriott International. “Each hotel will be highly unique and distinct with its own identity, appealing to a growing segment of our customers who are looking for an experience that an independent hotel can deliver.”

There are currently plans to add approximately 25 hotels through 2010 with locations throughout the world. The Autograph Collection provides Marriott with another attractive platform for future global growth. The benefit to member properties includes tapping into Marriott’s industry-leading global reservations system, and powerful consumer outreach through its leading technology, and sales and marketing platforms which have helped build Marriott into one of the world’s leading hotel operators.

Marriott has been successful in developing brands across a wide spectrum of customer segments and each is uniquely positioned against a specific target segment. While there may be some cross selling opportunities, The Autograph Collection gives Marriott the ability to capture a broad audience that would not have typically considered a branded concept – appealing to guests who want to stay in independent hotels.

Each hotel will be required not only to meet Autograph’s discriminating product standards, but will also need to demonstrate continued high guest satisfaction and quality assurance scores to remain part of The Autograph Collection. In addition, each hotel will go through the same hotel and operator approval processes as other Marriott full-service hotels.

The Autograph Collection will be featured on Marriott.com and affiliated with Marriott Rewards, Marriott International’s award-winning guest loyalty program, where guests can earn points at more than 3,000 hotels in 68 countries.