In MKG Hospitality’s annual worldwide ranking, in terms of pure room count, IHG came in first place once again despite the 31,000 rooms that left the network due to the new brand guidelines of its largest brand, Holiday Inn. However this loss is noticeable in its 0.5% growth rate which gave the British group the second lowest growth rate amongst the top ten hospitality giants. Only Best Western scored lower at -0,4%, which opened an opportunity for Starwood Hotels and Resorts to jump ahead of the Arizona-based company by climbing up a notch from last year’s eight place to this year’s seventh place. Furthermore, Starwood boasts the highest growth rate amongst the top ten hospitality giants at 5.9%, which the American group attributes to its development in emerging markets, especially China. Besides Best Western and Starwood, all groups kept their same rank from last. However, one should consider that Hilton Worldwide would have surpassed Wyndham Hotel Group for second place thanks to their organic growth, had Wyndham not bought the Tryp Hotel brand from the Spanish group, Melia Hotels International.

In terms of growth rate, Chinese hospitality groups multiplied their hotel supply by a whopping 71.8% for 7 Days Group Holding and 30.1% for Homes Inn putting them in first and second places respectively. The first western group to remain in line with that level of growth is Marriott which came in third place with more than 21,000 rooms.

“This undoubtedly confirms that the hospitality industry is walking away from the crisis inflicted upon our industry mostly in 2009. Development is slowly reaching the levels required by the market to maintain the equilibrium between supply and demand, especially in emerging markets” stated George Panayotis, CEO of MKG Group. Mr. Panayotis continues, “Furthermore, this development is very much characterized by the asset-light strategy that is very much the trend in mature markets, but much more of a rule in emerging ones, which runs perfectly in line with major groups’ development plans in countries like China and India."