Sean O’Neill compares the sizes of each of the major hotel chains, and their growth rates over the past five years.
Marriott Bonvoy (inclusive of former Starwood members) is the largest program while Hilton Honors has been growing quickly and catching up. Accor’s loyalty program – which is newer than the others – is small for the chain’s size. And while World of Hyatt is the smallest among these 7 hotel groups, it hits substantially above its weight, something that’s true both for program membership and for its co-brand credit card deal.
| Chain | # Members | 5 Yr Growth | Notes | |||
| Accor | 89,000,000 | 40% | Over 4 years | |||
| Choice | 60,000,000 | 54% | ||||
| Hilton | 173,000,000 | 110% | ||||
| Hyatt | 42,000,000 | 110% | Over 6 years | |||
| IHG | 115,000,000 | 15% | ||||
| Marriott | 192,000,000 | 60% | ||||
| Wyndham | 105,000,000 | 78% |
St. Regis Abu Dhabi
There’s a couple of limitations to this data.
- We don’t know what counts as a member. This isn’t an active member (however a given chain defines that, such as some activity in their account in the last 12, 24, or 36 months). It’s total members in their data file. And some chains pay purge data at some point.
- Available data for some chains is limited, for instance Hyatt’s 2018 member number isn’t available so their growth rate is calculated back to 2017.
Park Hyatt New York
It’s not just Hyatt’s growth that’s notable but also their program size relative to footprint. On a per-hotel and per-room basis they’re larger than the other chains.
For IHG, the pace of enrollments picked up markedly after the rebrand of IHG One Rewards and introduction of a new elite status program in 2022.
Meanwhile, O’Neill notes that “Marriott International says that Marriott Bonvoy has the lowest loyalty charge-out rates in the industry.” Hotel owners pay the lowest fees for program members that stay. That was a key announced goal of late CEO Arne Sorenson, after the chain acquired Starwood and with the introduction of the new Bonvoy program – and was a reason I expected that the deal would mean points devaluation for members.
Marriott’s Al Maha Desert Resort
However it’s worth noting that hotels don’t have to pay as much for ‘the points’ awarded to guests because the points in turn don’t cover the full stay at the best hotels. Unlike Hilton and Hyatt, members pay the hotel directly for resort and destination fees when redeeming their points.
Merely joining a program and being in a member data file is just the ability of a chain to market to a member. And the value of a member on each chain’s donor file (their ability to monetize the member) will be different.
- Hilton is everywhere, but delivers only modestly on the earn side of the program and average value in redemption. Elite benefits are extremely weak (no guaranteed late check-out, and hotels keeping top elites out of available suites is entirely consistent with program rules). Many hotel properties overdeliver relative to their obligations, of course.
- Marriott is everywhere, and on paper has a strong program for their best and highest-spending guests, but there’s tremendous variance in on-property delivery of benefits and their published upgrade benefit lags Hyatt and IHG.
- IHG has a limited number of hotels in premium categories, and many of their franchised lower-end properties need to be kicked out of the brand. However it’s a reasonable earn and burn program (not nearly as good as it used to be) and they finally have elite benefits which on paper really shine – like clearly spelled out breakfast benefits for Diamonds and the ability to confirm suites 14 days in advance out of revenue inventory.
- Hyatt doesn’t have the footprint of Hilton, IHG or Marriott and so it has to be more rewarding for its best customers. The highlight of the program is its top elite tier, which is unmatched in delivering confirmed suites at booking (and offers a dedicated concierge at 60 status nights, only Marriott offers something similar – at 100 nights and $23,000 spend).
Hilton’s Conrad Bora Bora
Hilton, Conrad and Crockfords Main Pool, Las Vegas
About half the size of Hyatt, and more of a coalition program that smaller brands can join rather than operating their own program, I really wish I had more of an opportunity to engage with GHA Discovery which awards top tier Black status after staying at just 3 brands (which can be accomplished in 3 nights in some cities).
Park Hyatt Sydney
I do wish Hyatt had a solution for small town America, and more full service properties. I also wish they had a higher elite bonus for stays. But I do very very well as a World of Hyatt member, generally confirming suites in advance whenever I travel with my wife and daughter.
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