Hotel Brand Bloat: ‘A Shakeout Is Coming’
Photo Caption: In 2017, North Point Hospitality debuted a tri-branded Marriott building in downtown Nashville, with three hotel brands in one: AC, SpringHill Suites, and Residence Inn by Marriott. Source: Acumen Development Partners.
Skift Take
Many marketers design hotel brands to appeal more to hotel owners than travelers. One reason? Creating a new brand is easier than fixing an old one.
Major hotel groups in 2023 introduced a wave of brands, including Marriott's StudioRes, IHG's Garner, Spark by Hilton, and Hyatt Studios. These brands shouldn't be confused with other new ones, such as Aman's Janu, Kerzner's Siro, TUI's The Mora, Langham's Ying'nFlo, TAG's Paradox, and Paliosociety's Le Petit Pali.
There are now about 1,000 hotel brands worldwide.
Is that too many? We turned to one of the leading authorities for answers: Chekitan Dev, a professor at Cornell University’s hotel school. Dev literally wrote the book on hospitality branding.
Dev gave an hour-long talk on the topic this week. Here are a dozen Skift Takes based on what we heard.
1. Brands are often built for owners more than for travelers.Hotel groups like Marriott have large footprints, and any given location may have several of their brands. But then developers need a fresh one to stand out — hence, more brands.
Hotel groups may also prom
