Why Luxury Hotels Don't Make the Best-Brand Lists
Photo Credit: The outdoor infinity swimming pool at the Amanwella resort in Sri Lanka. Aman
Skift Take
The best-known luxury hotel brands face a challenge. Their brands are conspicuously absent from global rankings of elite brand value.
Each year, when Interbrand, Forbes, and others release their rankings of the world's most valuable brands, the usual suspects appear: Apple, Nike, Louis Vuitton, Hermés, Porsche. Luxury hotel companies don't make the cut: Not Four Seasons. Not Ritz-Carlton. Not Mandarin Oriental.
Interbrand's latest list of the best global brands only includes public companies, which explains why private companies like Four Seasons haven't made it.
"The biggest technical reason the large hotel groups don't make the lists is that they don't disclose the profit and loss on each brand," said Interbrand's global director of brand economics, Greg Silverman. "If the larger brands with scale disclosed, they would probably qualify," Silverman said. "They're creating brand ecosystems that are terrific."
Forbes's list of most valuable brands includes private companies, but it hasn't recently included luxury hotel brands.
A view of the Juliet balcony at one of the "houses" at Rosewood Bangkok. Source: Rosewood. Brands With PromiseSeveral luxury hotel brands that haven't made the lists show potential.
Mandarin Oriental and Raffles performed better than other hotel brands in surveys of European consumers by BVA BDRC’s Brand Margin.
Four Seasons' cost-effective placement on the hit series "The White Lotus" has boosted its brand awareness.
Aman is the rare ultra-luxury hotel group that fosters a devoted group of loyalists, as you can see by searching for the #amanjunkies tag on social media.
The recent launch of Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection suggests the power of the hotel brand. About half of the guests on its first two vessels had never sailed on a cruise ship, but they tried it on the promise of the Ritz brand.
