Hotels Weigh How Many Brands Are Just Too Many in Travel’s Worst Year Ever
Photo Credit: Hotel companies have piled on new brands in recent years, and analysts say coronavirus isn't likely to deter the trend. Flickr / Dylan Wilbur
Skift Take
There may be a method behind the hotel brand expansion madness, but parent companies have to be vigilant in keeping distinct brand identities alive — especially during the current downturn in travel.
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked the worst year for the travel industry on record, and business leaders are in a survival mode of shedding unnecessary expenses and assets. But beefed-up hotel brand portfolios are likely here to stay.
Industry critics have chided hotel companies in recent years for adding so many brands. Five of the world's leading hotel companies — Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Wyndham — have more than 120 between them, ranging from Super 8 to the Ritz-Carlton and everything in between.
Not even coronavirus can deter the hotel industry’s growing embrace of so many brands operating within a single company. But global companies have to maintain distinct brand identities rather than inflate concerns of brand bloat.
“Is coronavirus going to slow down the proliferation of brands? Maybe in the short-term, but I don’t think it’s going away on a long-term basis,” LW Hospitality Advisors CEO Daniel Lesser said. “F
