An interesting graphic I came across shows the number of hotels in the U.S. by the seven largest U.S. hotel chains.

U.S. Hotels domestic supply among major U.S. Hotel Chains

• Hilton Worldwide: 3,382 hotels; 506,455 rooms.
• Marriott International: 3,110 hotels; 501,070 rooms.
• Wyndham Worldwide: 5,815 hotels; 451,755 rooms.
• Choice International: 5,081 hotels; 385,827 rooms.
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts: 495 hotels; 152,693 rooms.
• Hyatt Hotels Corporation: 354 hotels; 91,590 rooms. 
• Carlson Rezidor Hotels: 549 hotels; 59,742 rooms.

Source: STR 12-31-2012 year end data.

I’m not sure why Best Western is missing from the list?

• Best Western International: 2,165 hotels (North America); 178,518 rooms (North America). Source: Best Western. What is impressive about Best Western is 1,312 hotels in Europe.

IHG is a UK based company, although, the majority of properties are located in the USA.

• InterContinental Hotels Group: 3,555 hotels; 449,617 rooms (North and South America and Caribbean). Source: IHG Fact Sheets. IHG has 628 hotels in Europe.

Starwood and Carlson have the highest proportion of hotels outside the USA among these chains. There are roughly 500 to 600 hotels outside the USA for Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Carlson-Rezidor. 

The high number of hotels outside the USA is one of the features I most enjoy about Best Western Rewards. The Best Western chain can put you in many places the other hotel chains can’t. And for free with points stays.

And when you are in the U.S.A. there are nearly 25,000 hotels in just the top nine chains with global points-based hotel loyalty programs.

The Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) is the opportunity for hotel brand representatives, property management companies, hotel owners and financiers to get together, discuss the state of the industry and make deals. The 2013 conference was held Jan 22-24 at JW Marriott L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.

What many hotel guests do not realize is the fact that the brand name whether Westin, Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, or whatever is primarily for marketing and sales. The hotel has an owner who may own other hotels in different brands. I have met several hotel owners who have multiple hotels in the same area under different competing brands. And the hotel may even be managed by a different company than the franchise. For example a Westin Hotel branded as a Starwood, might be managed by a third party hotel management company and owned by some other individual or investment group.

This was my first time attending ALIS. I was not sure how relevant the conference would be for Loyalty Traveler. There was good data content and some insights into 2013 trends during presentations. I will pass along some of the data trends like where the rates are rising fastest in Europe and why the USA is now once again everybody’s darling with data from STR, PKF, PwC and other 3-letter acronym hotel industry sources.

As someone only peripherally connected to the hotel industry I found the hotel brand trade booths interesting and I photographed them. This post shares the hotel brands exhibit hall portion of the conference for the major hotel chains present at ALIS with brand booths. Hotel trade show booths are certainly not the most novel thing for a reader who has been to a travel or hotel industry trade show, but if you have never seen hotel trade show booths before, then here is your chance. Read More…

In July 2012 I wrote a series of articles describing the Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) policies for eight major hotel chains. This post provides links to those articles.

Best Rate Guarantee claims are something I file several times a year. They are not that difficult to find when comparing the rates through Online Travel Agencies (OTA) to the published rates on a hotel chain website.

In 2012 I have received free nights (IHG and Choice), $100 gift card (Best Western), 2000 bonus Starpoints (SPG), and rate discounts (Club Carlson).

In these articles I describe each program’s Best Rate Guarantee policy, along with the program’s advantages and difficulties with submitting and processing a BRG claim.

Loyalty Traveler Best Rate Guarantee series – July 2012

Overview: Devilish Details of Best Rate Guarantee Claims

Best Western Hotels: Best Western Best Rate Guarantee $100 Travel Card Update Oct 25 – Turns out Best Western dropped the $100 travel card for approved BRG claims in late September. That benefit lasted only about six months since being introduced earlier this year.

Carlson Rezidor Hotels Group: Over 100 Hours for Carlson Best Rate Guarantee Reply

Choice International: Choice Hotels Best Rate Guarantee Free Night

Hilton Worldwide: Hilton Worldwide Best Rate Guarantee – Weaker than Marriott?

Hyatt Hotels: Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee claims are handled over the phone

InterContinental Hotels Group: InterContinental Hotels Group Best Rate Guarantee Get One Free Night

Marriott International: Marriott Hotels Look No Further Best Rate Guarantee for 25% Discount

Starwood Hotels: Starwood Preferred Guest Best Rate Guarantee for 2,000 Points or 10% off

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Best Western is the world’s largest hotel brand with over 4,000 hotels. This hotel chain offers a loyalty program for more hotels outside the USA of any global hotel chain, except Accor Hotels. And Best Western competes well with Accor for hotels in countries outside of France.

Best Western approved Best Rate Guarantee claim matches the lower rate found on a competing Online Travel Agency and offers a $100 Best Western Travel Card as an additional benefit. Read More…

Best Western Rewards has triple points and miles offers for the promotion period of September 12 through November 21. The main offer is triple points on your second stay booked through BestWestern.com.

• There is a limit of one bonus during the promotion period for general members.
• Elite members may also earn triple points on the 4^th stay for two bonuses.
• Reservations not made online through BestWestern.com or AAA.com only earn double points.
• Registration is required for the Fall 2010 promotion offers.

Triple Points Promo Code: FALL10

AAA Best Western Preferred members promo code: AAAFALL10

Best Western Rewards Special Offer registration links: https://goldcrownclub.bestwestern.com/members/regoffers.asp  (Note: you may need to sign in to your Best Western Rewards account to see the promotion offers in this link.)

Triple points is 30 points/$1 instead of the normal 10 points per $1. This would be an extra 2,000 points on a $100 stay or 6,000 bonus points on a $300 stay.

American Airlines AAdvantage Triple Miles

Promo Code: AMERFALL10 

I favor earning miles as the better value of these promotion offers due to no earning limit.                       

Stay 2 times between September 12 and November 21 and earn triple AAdvantage miles. The promotion states triple miles bonus is in addition to the standard 250 miles for a Best Western stay. This reads to me like two stays earns:

• Stay 1: 250 miles
• Stay 2: 250 miles + 750 bonus miles (triple miles) = 4x miles

Total: 1,250 miles after two stays. 

(Note: This is a new promotion offer without discussion on FlyerTalk yet so I may not be interpreting the triple points promotion correctly. This offer may actually only result in 750 total miles for Stay 2, but the promotion wording reads triple miles as “offer is in addition to the standard 250 AAdvantage® miles per qualified stay” which in my interpretation actually results in 4x miles on second hotel stay.)

Air Canada Aeroplan 4x Miles

Promo Code: AEROFALL10 

This offer reads “stay 2 separate times at any Best Western branded hotel worldwide between September 12, 2010 and November 21, 2010 will earn 4X Aeroplan Miles. There is no limit on mileage bonuses during the promotion period. Offer is based on the standard 250 Aeroplan Miles per qualified stay.”

Interpreting the fine print:

So the American Airlines AAdvantage promotion states triple miles in addition to the standard 250 miles per stay and the Aeroplan promotion states 4x miles based on the standard 250 miles per stay. 

AAdvantage and Aeroplan say triple and 4x miles respectively in their promotions, yet these two frequent flier mile offers sound like the same offer to me. 

1,250 miles every two stays is a decent bonus for Best Western Rewards. 

Of course, if you have a high priced stay at a Best Western planned you may want to go for the triple points.

Related Link: Best Western Hotels 2009 Best of the Best Awards – this link shows Best Western Hotel winners for Quality, Customer Service and Design. The Design Awards are a small list but look over these Best Western properties to find some real gems.