World’s Most Valuable Hotels Revealed

Hilton took out number 1 most valuable hotel brand, while Premier Inn is the world’s most premier hotel brand.

Every year Brand Finance, the valuation and strategy consultancy, values the brands of thousands of the worlds biggest companies.

Brands are first evaluated to determine their power / strength (based on factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, loyalty, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation) and given a corresponding letter grade up to AAA+.

Brand strength is used to determine what proportion of a business’s revenue is contributed by the brand, which is projected into perpetuity to determine the brand’s value. The world’s 50 most valuable hotels brands are then ranked and included in the Brand Finance Hotel 50.

Hilton ranked the world’s most valuable hotel, scoring a Brand rating of AAA, and a brand value of $US8.4 billion.

The top ten most valuable hotels also included Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Courtyard Marriott, Hampton, Ramada Worldwide, Shangri-la and Westin Hotels and Resorts.

Premier Inn claimed the world’s strongest hotel brand with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 88.7.

The mass-market UK-focused brand is widely known and  whose value for money supports higher scores than Luxury brands for preference and satisfaction as well. Premier Inn’s financial performance is correspondingly strong, with total sales up 12.9% and like for like sales up 4.2% in their financial year 2015/16, supporting a 11.9% pre-tax profit increase for Whitbread.

Also in the top ten most powerful brands list are Holiday in (BSI 85.4), Days Inn (BSI 85.2), Hilton (BSI 84.9), Hampton (BSI 84.6), Novotel (BSI 84.6), Comfort Inn (BSI 84.3), Courtyard Marriott (BSI 82.7), Ibis (BSI 82.2) and Melia (BSI 82.0).

Airbnb has added to the market supply of functional accomodation, growing more rapidly than any of the major hotel brands. It increased 52% year on year, reaching a total of US$3.7 billion. This makes it more valuable than all but four of the world’s biggest hotel brands.

In this context, the mixed results of the Brand Finance Hotels 50 may come as a little surprise. Five of the top ten most valuable brands have lost value, and the industry’s year to year average brand value growth rate (4%) is significantly below the average for all sectors.

There is a notable exception with reasons for optimism for several brands including Hilton hotel with brand value up 7% on 2016.

The report also stated that Pullman is this year’s fastest growing hotel brand, with an additional 31% brand value with a total of US$323 million.

To read the full Brand Finance Report click here.