Think BIG

Jan 20, 2025

There are more than 1,200 hotel brands worldwide and most are owned by a few companies. Let’s look at ‘who’s who’ in the hotel industry 😊.

The Big Picture

Over the years, mega hotel chains have emerged worldwide. These companies snapped up smaller brands and independent hotels and created many new brands along the way, allowing them to cater to a wide range of travelers in a highly competitive market (note that most big hotel chains only own a fraction of hotels in their portfolio, they have management or franchise agreements with others). Below is a list some of the biggest hotel brands in the world today.

– The company with the most hotels worldwide is Jin Jiang International, a Chinese tourism and hospitality company with 11,959 locations as of 2021. It is followed by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (9,280), Marriott International (8,484), H World Group Limited (8,176), Huazhu Hotels Group (7,830), Choice Hotels International (7,500), Hilton Worldwide (7,165), InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG, 6,164), BTG Hotels Group (5,916) and Accor Group (5,300). However, the chain with the most hotel rooms is Marriott International, with more than 1.5 million rooms around the globe.

– The hotel chain with the highest number of locations in the US is Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, with 6,083 locations across the country. Hotels under this brand can be found in every state. Texas has the most Wyndham locations.

– As for Airbnb, the biggest competitor of hotels, in 2023, it had over 7 million active listings, about five times the number of Marriott hotel rooms!

Some of the largest hotel chains in the world had relatively modest debuts. Let’s go back in time to see how it all started for a few well-known brands.

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