Marriott Adds Italy’s Lefay to Grow in Luxury Wellness Travel

Marriott International announced a joint venture with Italy’s Lefay Resorts & Residences, bringing the wellness brand into Marriott’s portfolio and setting up plans for wider international growth.

Marriott said Lefay will become its first brand focused only on luxury wellness.

Major hotel groups are expanding beyond traditional luxury hotels and putting more focus on wellness-led stays. The trips where the main product is not only the room or the location, but also structured health, spa, and wellbeing programs.

As the Global Wellness Institute says, the wellness economy reached $6.8 trillion in 2024 and was projected to approach $9 trillion by 2028.

Lefay offers more than a typical luxury resort brand

Lefay is a relatively small brand, but it already has a clear identity. It was founded in 2006 by Domenico Alcide and Liliana Leali and currently operates two resorts in Italy, one at Lake Garda and one in the Dolomites.

The brand is known for combining luxury hospitality with a more structured wellness model built around its Lefay Spa Method, which mixes scientific research with holistic wellness traditions.

That gives Marriott something more distinctive than a standard luxury resort brand. Lefay is aimed at travelers who want wellness to be the main reason for the trip, not just one hotel feature among many.

Marriott gets the brand while the family keeps the real estate

Under the agreement, Lefay’s brand and intellectual property will move into the new joint venture, while the Leali family will keep ownership of the Italian hotel real estate. Marriott said the current resorts and future ones will operate through long-term management agreements.

Marriott’s growth model which relies heavily on management and franchise agreements rather than owning hotel real estate directly. That gives Marriott a lower-asset way to expand into luxury wellness while using its development network, global reach, and Marriott Bonvoy platform to support the brand’s next stage.

Lefay fits Marriott’s bigger luxury growth plan

Marriott added more than 700 properties in 2025 and continued to build its luxury pipeline. The company is not only growing in scale but also sharpening its position in higher-value travel segments. In that context, Lefay looks like part of Marriott’s broader push into experience-led luxury and wellness travel.

Photo by Jordan Ryskamp on Unsplash