2011 Ranking of Hotel Groups in North and Latin America

MKG Hospitality has unveiled its 2011 ranking of hotel groups in North America and Latin America based on room numbers. The top five in the America’s ranking remain rather congruous with the worldwide ranking but there are noticeable variations when looking at the detailed split between North America and Latin America.

European Hospitality giant Accor keeps first place in the Latin American top five while they are absent from the North American Ranking. Spanish group Sol Meliá, now called Meliá Hotels International, ranks third place in Latin America while taking 16th place on worldwide scale. A visible difference is shown in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ development in the Americas when comparing North America with Latin America. The New Jersey-based group gained nearly 10,000 rooms in Latin America while losing more than 18,000 in North America.

In North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico), Hilton Worldwide comes in first place in MKG Hospitality’s ranking in North America with 505,654 rooms in service as of 1 January 2011. The Virginia-based group also acquired the most number of rooms into its network amongst the top five with 11,824 more rooms than the previous year. While Wyndham had excellent organic growth, brand standards lead the Texas-based group to oust 18,122 rooms from their network, and take second place in MKG’s ranking in North America. Furthermore, Wyndham concentrated its expansion efforts outside of North America with a development strategy based around China and India, in addition to Europe through the acquisition of the Tryp hotel brand from Sol Meliá. Marriott comes in third place with 486,787 rooms, ahead of the only non-American group in the top five. InterContinental Hotels Group only takes fourth place in North America despite taking the top spot in the worldwide ranking. The British group boasts 422,726 rooms after losing 5,582 mainly from non-compliance of the new brand standards of its largest chain, Holiday Inn. Choice Hotels comes in fifth place with 419,918 rooms; a notch ahead of its worldwide ranking thanks to its concentrated presence in the United States and Canada.

In  Latin America, Accor keeps its lead despite adding only 1,000 rooms to their network in this region. Marriott’s acquisition of 10,614 rooms was not enough to oust the French hospitality giant from its first place position and the American group takes second place in the region. With a strong presence in Spanish-speaking countries, Meliá Hotels International comes in third place with 19,715 rooms in Latin America, having added 1,547 rooms in the region in 2010. The Spanish group came in 16th place on a worldwide scale. As with the rest of the world, IHG showed a negative room growth, having lost 397 rooms due to the new Holiday Inn brand standards, yet they reach fifth place with a healthy 13,757 additional rooms in Latin America.

Georges Panayotis, CEO of MKG Hospitality said, “These results illustrate the strengthening of a post-crisis economy in North America because major hotel groups have the readily available supply on the market that allows them to remove a number of rooms from their network in order to stay in line with brand standards without jeopardizing their objectives ...  The industry applies a different strategy to the Latin American market, which is nonetheless strong, but is still considered as an emerging market with strong potential for international hotel brands. This market welcomes the development of a more diverse hotel supply.”

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