SPECIAL REPORT

RANK COMPANY COUNTRIES

ABOUT THE RANKINGS

Data for HOTELS ’ 325 is gathered through an online survey completed by hotel company contacts . Individuals are asked to report the number of guestrooms and hotels in operation systemwide as of December 31 , 2012 . Companies that do not respond are subject to an estimate through public records , previous years ’ data , industry sources and independent research .

In some cases , rooms and hotels are counted more than once because HOTELS chooses to separately report data from owner-operators , managers and franchisors on the same list . Thus , a single property that is owned by one party , managed by another and branded by a third would be counted three times . Furthermore , this ranking omits companies that exclusively or overwhelmingly own hotels ; only companies that also manage or franchise hotels are included . That is why REITs and private equity companies are excluded . Noteworthy changes :

• Utell is no longer listed among the consortia , as parent company Pegasus “ retired ” the brand .

• Gaylord Entertainment is no longer listed , as the brand now falls under the Marriott International umbrella .

• Choice Hotels International broke into the top five corporate companies , passing Accor , which dropped some 80,000 rooms — mostly due to its sale of Motel 6 .

Special thanks to the following companies that helped

HOTELS collect data :

• Horwath HTL , Asia

• HVS India

• MKG Group , Paris

• Otus & Co . Advisory Ltd ., London

• Pam Golding Hospitality , Cape Town

36 HOTELS July / August 2013 www . hotelsmag . com