Hotel Chains by Global Ranking

Who is the larger hotel chain – InterContinental Hotels Group or Wyndham Hotel Group?

It depends on how you look at the numbers. Wyndham Hotels Group is the largest hotel chain in the world by hotel properties. InterContinental Hotels Group is the largest hotel chain in the world when counting the number of hotel rooms.

I like numbers. The size of hotel chains and hotel brands is data I periodically check. The major hotel chains are large global dynamic entities.  Hotels open, hotels close, and hotels are bought and sold or change brand identity with regularity.

Hotels Magazine has compiled hotel chain statistics in their 39^th annual report of the hotel industry released June 25, 2009. This resource inspired me to look at the major hotel loyalty program hotel chains for additional data to add to the Hotels Magazine numbers and compile tables I can use when analyzing hotel loyalty programs.

Affixing an accurate number of hotels on any given day is difficult. In the past year the Hyatt Hotels chain sold off Hawthorn Suites and AmeriSuites to Wyndham Hotels. Hyatt Place and Baymont Suites are two brands that expanded this past year from hotel conversions of the former AmeriSuites and Hawthorn brand hotels. Hilton and Marriott open a new hotel somewhere in the world about every other day on average.

New hotel brands have emerged in the USA over the past year, like Hyatt’s Andaz and their cookie-cutter hotel brand Hyatt Place, and Starwood Hotels’ extended stay hotel brand, Element.

Loyalty Traveler reorganized and assimilated data from the Hotels Magazine reports, with additional corporate data available on hotel chains’ websites to create a data profile relevant to the hotel loyalty program frequent guest. My primary data interest not found in the Hotels Magazine report is the number of hotels in each brand and their market segment. For that data I scoured the hotel websites and came up with numbers reported at some point in 2009. The result is a snapshot of the hotel brands within each major hotel chain.

Top 9 Hotel Chains Globally by Number of Hotels (plus Hyatt at #19)

Source: http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6667503.html

World’s Largest Hotel Companies: Corporate 300 Chart

These hotel chains all have points-based hotel loyalty programs, except for the eurocentric Accor Hotels program which is a spending based program. Accor’s A-Club hotel loyalty program excludes Motel 6, which is the chain’s largest brand at over 1,000 hotels and Accor’s primary hotel brand in the USA.

Hyatt Hotels ranks 19^th in number of hotels, however, the chain ranks number 10 globally in number of hotel rooms. Hyatt Hotels tend to be large hotel properties.

Top 10 Hotel Chains Globally by Number of Hotel Rooms

Source: http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6667503.html

World’s Largest Hotel Companies: Corporate 300 Chart

Loyalty Traveler will post data on individual hotel chains throughout this week.