Why Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt Don’t Actually Own Most of Their Hotels | WSJ The Economics Of

Hyatt is smaller than its hotel chain competitors. So how did it get to be the most expensive? Watch the Economics of Hyatt: on.wsj.com/3xt9yNf How did Marriott become the largest hotel chain, with over 30 brands? Marriott’s CFO explains why this is just the beginning for the hospitality giant: on.wsj.com/3xhNqpb

What a complex way of explaining that many hotels are franchisees.

It's funny how the CEOs of the hotel companies, who make money from selling their brand, look like rich people; while the MCR CEO looks like a used car salesman.

I’ve seen a shift in Marriott hotels where the quality is inconsistent. This makes a lot of sense.

This is why most hotels are a complete crapshoot on what you get. Very little consistency in physical product, amenities, and especially service. Breakfasts are weaker, housekeeping services reduced, loyalty recognition is greatly minimized. Not saying every chain hotel was perfect before, but ever since the pandemic and the offloading of property by the chains, the service has gone downhill at nearly every hotel I have stayed at.

Shoutout to the stock footage of random people at the Berlin-Brandenburg airport.

as a former hotel worker. the real loser here is the loyalty customers, it's literally a sign on the front door. that's it. nothing special about the hotel. use your brain, look at all hotels individually and pick what you like for a price you are willing to pay.

When I heard the CFO of Marriott say "we are the largest, 8700 hotels in 139 countries and territories, really showing expertise around the world for what we think hospitality means", I thought this meant, you know, making a nice hotel for guests. Turns out this is left to the franchisees, and what hospitality means to Marriott is figuring out how to charge as much as "the market can bear", and setting up anti-competitive loyalty programs to stop customers from shopping around outside of their flag.

And overtime, the marriot, hilton, etc will slowly go down hill. A fact they acknowledge within this video. When you loose control over quality standardization, it becomes inevitable that the brands reputation looses value as well.

I used Marriott almost exclusively for 17 years of business travel. Now that I'm retired, I've found that IHG is a much better value and the service is much more consistent. Also, as a lifetime Platinum with Marriott, I used to get upgrades quite often pre-COVID but haven't seen one since.

I work at a Marriott trust me if your service sucks its because quality of work has been destroyed. We have been reduced to so few workers we cant keep up. They made a new building where i work at . Never hired more people. Trust me it sucks to the extremes. All of our best employees that were diamond left my Marriott and found better jobs and that was in every department btw.

Time for Monopoly to update the game rules. lol

We seem to do a whole lot of the asset light business model here in the US. Outsourcing Manufacturing, Uber , Air BNB , Hotel ownership , Franchised Restaurants , Finance , Call centers, health insurance . Capital likes to take the path of least resistance It's no wonder other countries are growing their economies. It's just more financialization here.

Now I know which day to book - Sunday. Thanks for the tip.

Good job WSJ!! Great storytelling and very informative.

So, who do you think pays for those franchise fees?! Hotel prices have gone up astronomically over the last 5 years and the highest prices hikes are the Brands in this video. This is the same thing happening in Las Vegas with MGM and Caesars where they have sold their properties and are now paid to manage these hotels (again, prices have gone through the roof!).

This is gooooood! I love these kinds of informative videos WSJ!!!

Having worked at a hotel I can also say that the owners of hotels also hire a management company typically to staff their hotel and run it for a percentage of the revenue/profit. And a lot of times if you get awful experiences it might not be the people at those hotels but rather the terrible management and lack of or micromanaging oversight and scrutiny you’re under. The hotel industry is tough in its own way and it’s not very kind. I came from one with awful management and they were kept because the books looked good despite the work morale and culture being diminished because the management company covered it all up.

Marriott sucks these days. They are all the same econo box hotels below a certain category

very informative, thanks!