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Top 11 Hotel Chains Worldwide – rise of the megabrands

When I write about hotels, nearly all my pieces cover only 10 hotel chains and 10 hotel loyalty programs, and that is only if still counting Marriott and Starwood as different chains. Within these ten hotel chains are more than 35,000 hotels worldwide. That is plenty of coverage for most of the places I travel with a wide selection of hotels where I can either earn points on paid stays or spend points for free and discount hotel rates. Careful planning with hotel loyalty programs allows me to get a good value hotel stay at a discount in many places I travel by either earning bonus points through promotions or redeeming points for lower price than regular paid rates at the hotel.

Hotel News Now compiled data to create a table showing the ten largest hotel companies worldwide by number of hotels and rooms open. They also included a pipeline of hotels expected to open over the next few years in each hotel chain. As I studied the table data and started using it to write a piece, I eventually noticed the chart date was November 2015 and the data was compiled from 2015 Q3 third quarter financial reports from each hotel company.

Public data currently available on hotel chains’ reports provide more recent data from June 30, 2016 for total number of hotels and rooms worldwide in most major hotel chains. I examined different reports today and compiled my own global hotel chain ‘by the numbers’ list of the Top 11 hotel chains worldwide. 9 of these hotel chains comprise the top 10 hotel loyalty programs for US consumers.

Top 11 hotel chains worldwide are by ordered by number of rooms: Marriott International-Starwood (USA), Hilton Worldwide (USA), InterContinental Hotels Group (UK), Wyndham Hotel Group (USA), Jin Jiang International Hotel Group (China), Choice Hotels (USA), Accor Hotels (France), Best Western (USA), Homeinns (China), Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (USA), Hyatt (USA).

Room count is the more important data point to the hotel industry for measuring hotel chain size. Every room is potential revenue stream.

For me as a traveler, I have less concern about whether a hotel has 60 rooms or 600 rooms, as long as I have one of the rooms when I need it. I think consumers are more interested in number of hotels for more locations.

Top 11 Hotel Chains Worldwide

June 30, 2016 data

1. Marriott International 

Marriott International 2016 Q2 earnings release (to  June 30, 2016)

     4,554 Hotels. 777,402 rooms.

     Starwood Hotels 2016 Q2 earnings release (to  June 30, 2016)

     1,324 Hotels. 375,851 rooms.

Marriott-Starwood post-merger size October 10, 2016

     5,878 Hotels. 1,152,253 rooms.  (Excluding new hotels opened since July 1, 2016)

            5,456 Hotels. 1,071,097 rooms  (November 2015 combined Marriott-Starwood size reported by Hotel News Now.)

     + 422 hotels in 9 months.

2. Hilton Worldwide

     4,727 Hotels. 775,866 rooms. (2016 Q2 earnings release)

           4,480 Hotels and 737,922 rooms.(HNN graphic Nov 2015)

           + 153 hotels in 9 months.

3. InterContinental Hotels Group

      5,070 Hotels. 749,721 rooms. (IHG 2016 Q2 report)

           4,963 hotels and 726,876 rooms. (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

          + 107 hotels in 9 months.

4. Wyndham Hotel Group

     7,876 Hotels. 683,276 rooms. (Wyndham 2016 Q2 report)

           7,760 hotels and 671,900 rooms. (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

           + 116 hotels in 9 months.

5. Jin Jiang International.

     6,425 hotels. 619,284 rooms. (Jin Jiang 2016 Q2 investor report states hotels in 63 countries)

       China 5,167 hotels.

       Europe 1,024 hotels.

       Asia, except China 127 hotels.

       Africa 60 hotels.

       Americas 47 hotels.

           6,000 hotels and 640,000 rooms. (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

6. Choice Hotels International

     6,429 hotels. 509,556 rooms. (Choice International 2016 Q2 report).

            6,379 hotels and 504,357 rooms (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

           + 50 hotels in 9 months.

7. Accor Hotels

     3,900 hotels. 517,680 rooms. (Accor 2016 Q1 report).

          3,815 hotels and 500,366 rooms. (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

           + 85 hotels in 6 months.

8. Best Western International

     4,100+ hotels worldwide stated around Best Western website. Did not see any precise data for 2016 hotel count.

3,903 hotels and 303,768 rooms. (HNN graphic Nov 2015)

           + 197 hotels.

9. HomeInns Hotel Group (Chinese economy hotel brand became private company in 2016).

     2,787 hotels and 311,608 rooms HNN graphic Nov 2015.

10. Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

     1,176 hotels (based on August 2016 brand information reports).

       530 Country Inn & Suites    

       298 Radisson Blu

       155 Radisson Hotels 31,600 rooms.

       143 Park Inn

         46 Park Plaza

           3 Quorvus Collection

           1 Radisson Red (Brussels) Opening soon: Minneapolis Nov 2016.

     1,092 hotels and 172,234 rooms (HNN graphic Nov 2015).

      + 84 hotels in 2016.

11. Hyatt Hotels

     633 hotels. 170,239 rooms. (Hyatt 2016 Q2 report).

Hyatt is not in top 10 hotel chains globally by number of hotels or rooms, but at 170,000 rooms, Hyatt is within 2,000 rooms worldwide in June 30, 2016 data compared to 172,000 rooms in Carlson Rezidor (Radisson Hotels) on Sep 30, 2015. Carlson Rezidor is in the process of being acquired by a Chinese corporation.

As you can see from the data, the big hotel chains are growing rapidly. The cumulative number of hotels added amongst  8 non-China based hotel chains who are not Hyatt is about 1,200 hotels in the past year alone. With Hyatt only having 600 hotels worldwide, the chain looks like it might be ripe for a change either to remain competitive on its own or as an upscale addition to another global hotel chain leader in the new global order. Hyatt Hotels may still be a player in the merger and acquisition market in 2017.

There are all kinds of pieces of data I picked up from hotel chain financial reports and recent hotel industry news stories. The condensed version I’ll try and expand on includes hotel industry room rates, hot regional markets where room rates are rising globally and USA, cool regional markets where hotel rates are dropping globally and USA. Financial reports include average room rates in 2016 for many brands and 2017 industry forecasts say the times are a changin’ for next year.

I am looking forward to watching this play in 2017.

Spoiler alert: 2017 is expected to see the brakes applied to hotel room rate rises that have been moving up steadily for 7 years. New hotel supply entering the major chains at such a high rate with slowed occupancy rises seen in 2016 and predicted to continue in 2017 could mean hotel loyalty promotions pick up from the tired double points and high volume stay offers prevalent the past couple years.

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