Hilton Overtakes Marriott as World's Most Valuable Brand

Driven by strong revenue increases over the last year, Hilton has overtaken Marriott as the world’s most valuable hotel brand.

According to the Brand Finance Hotels 50 ranking, Hilton’s brand value growth is up 17 percent to $7.4 billion.

The same ranking reveals that Marriott suffered a reduction in brand value, down eight percent to $5 billion and its brand strength dropped from AAA- to AA+.

This news about Marriott comes as the company grapples with several challenges in the North American market including hacking scandals and issues with its loyalty schemes.

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At the same time, the combined value of Marriott’s brands within the Brand Finance Hotels 50 ranking decreased by 30 percent, clearing the path for Hilton’s brand portfolio to claim the title of the world’s most valuable.

“Hilton’s strategic approach to brand growth has allowed it to extend its lead as the world’s most valuable hotel brand. At the same time, endorsement from the flagship brand has rendered benefits across the portfolio as Homewood Suites, DoubleTree, and Hampton have seen their brand values soar,” said Savio D’Souza, valuation director at Brand Finance, said.

The combined value of all Hilton brands which made this year’s top 50 ranking amounts to $14.7 billion – nearly $2 billion more than Marriott’s $12.9 billion portfolio.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings achieved overall brand value growth of 41 percent, while the Marriott International brand portfolio decreased by 30 percent.

Hilton’s brand value in the top 50 ranking is concentrated across six brands, up from five in 2018. The company also has thousands of new rooms and hotels in the pipeline.

Marriott saw four of its brands drop out of the Brand Finance Hotel 50 ranking this year.

With one new entrant, Marriott now has 12 brands in the ranking.

Marriott’s recent announcement of entering the home-rental market, however, is a promising move to take back market share from Airbnb and could contribute to an uplift in brand value in the coming year, according to Brand Finance.

Both the Hilton and Marriott portfolios remain well ahead of third-ranked Wyndham, which also suffered a drop of 8 percent in brand value to $7.3 billion.

The new ranking also reveals the three hotel brands that grew the fastest in value this year. All of them are from Hilton’s portfolio. They include Homewood Suites (brand value up 99 percent to $0.8 billion), followed closely by Double Tree (up 79 percent to $2.1 billion) and Hampton (up 78% to $3.2 billion).

This growth allowed the Double Tree and Hampton to reshape the ranking’s top 10, with Double Tree jumping from 17 to 7 and Hampton rising from 10 to 5 over the past year.

Meanwhile, the three fastest-falling brands this year were Westin, (down 46 percent) Residence Inn (down 46 percent), and Sheraton (down 44 percent).

According to the report, seven out of the bottom 10 worst-performing brands are part of the Marriott portfolio, dragging its combined value down.

In addition to calculating the overall brand value, the Brand Finance report also identifies the relative strength of brands through a scorecard of metrics that takes into consideration marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.

According to this specific criteria and scoring, Mercure takes the title of the world’s strongest hotel brand, significantly improving its Brand Strength Index (BSI) score from 75.7 to 86.2 out of 100 and recording a brand rating upgrade from AA+ to AAA.

Mercure is also the most valuable brand in Accor’s portfolio, with nearly 800 hotels. The brand has continued to make several acquisitions through its scheme of franchise growth.