Best Western remains world's biggest hotel brand

16 June 2009 by Gemma Sharkey

Best Western remains the world's largest hotel brand with more than 300,000 rooms according to a new report from MKG Hospitality.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) mid-range brand Holiday Inn remained the second largest, with just under 250,000 rooms worldwide, according to MKG's newly-published Global Hotel Brand Ranking 2009.
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The most significant growth by brand in the past year came from IHG's Crowne Plaza, with a 12.3% increase in rooms to almost 94,000.

IHG's budget offer, Express by Holiday Inn, also saw strong growth with an 11% rise in the year. It now has almost 174,000 rooms worldwide.

Accor's Ibis increased its branded room stock by 9.5% last year to almost 95,000 while Motel 6, also owned by Accor, passed the 1,000 hotel milestone in 2008 and now has almost 102,000 rooms, up 4% year-on-year.

Hilton's budget chain Hampton Inn also fared well, growing 8.4% to almost 160,000 rooms.

Vanguélis Panayotis, director of development at MKG Hospitality, said: "Overall, this is a significant growth compared to the previous five years, with many projects already commenced being realised.

"Among the most notable trends this year is the performance of economy segment brands, such as Holiday Inn Express, Ibis and Hampton Inn."

Panayotis predicted Best Western would retain the top spot, in the short term at least, as it still has extensive development plans, as does second-place InterContinental.

He added that recent strong growth in the branded hotel sector would continue despite the global slowdown as many large hotel projects were already at an advanced stage of development.

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