Curio Collection is a Finalist for Best Upscale Hotel Brand at the
2026 Travelling for Business Awards, and its pitch resolves the oldest tension in hotel choice: the traveller wants character, the booker wants certainty. Hilton's upscale soft brand delivers both by design — a hand-picked portfolio of independent hotels that keep their own names, architects and eccentricities, wired invisibly into Hilton's reservations, standards and Honors loyalty engine. The guest gets a one-off; the travel programme gets a known quantity.
The collection has grown into one of the segment's success stories, now spanning well over a hundred properties across five continents, and the recent signings sheet shows the curation holding firm. Each candidate must bring a story worth keeping; plenty apply, fewer are chosen. Europe is a particular focus:
three new Italian addresses — from Belle Époque glamour in Genoa to Michelin-starred dining above the Amalfi Coast — join the fold, while
Palacio Bellas Artes in San Sebastián will convert one of the Basque capital's landmark buildings for a 2026 debut in Spain's culinary capital. Across the Atlantic, a Sunset Strip icon has re-emerged under the flag in Los Angeles and a Napa Valley resort takes the brand into wine country, with Hawaii and the Caribbean close behind.
For business travellers, Curio works hardest in exactly the cities where a cookie-cutter flag feels wrong — the design capital, the wine region incentive, the client dinner that deserves a hotel with a story. Rates sit in the attainable upscale band, corporate booking channels function exactly as any Hilton does, and the properties' individuality gives planners of retreats and launches something increasingly precious: a venue no attendee has seen before. Owners tell the same story from the other side — independence kept, distribution transformed — which is why conversions keep queueing.
The nomination recognises the discipline behind the freedom — a decade of proving that independence and infrastructure can share a roof profitably. Momentum is the proof: Curio's signing pace has made it one of the fastest-growing collections in the upscale market, without a corresponding loosening of the entry bar. Winners will be announced at the 2026 Travelling for Business Awards, and a collection built on singular buildings will appreciate a singular evening.
