HotelsMag July-August 2020 | Page 36

Data for HOTELS 325 is gathered through an online survey completed by hotel company contacts reporting guestrooms and hotels open systemwide as of December 31 , 2019 . Companies that do not respond are subject to an estimate through public records , previous years ’ data , industry sources and 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 , own and operate , or franchise hotels are included .

Unfortunately , there are some inconsistencies in reporting from year to year due to discrepancies in reporting by companies listed .

Special thanks to Horwath HTL for the its help gathering data , as well as project coordinator Chris Scott .

Some changes in the ranking reflect mergers and acquisitions made during 2019 . Among noteworthy M & A activity was Aimbridge Hospitality ’ s acquisition of Interstate Hotels & Resorts . Additionally , Australia ’ s Mantra Group ’ s data is now included with Accor ; NH Hotels data is now reflected in Minor International ’ s data .

Oyo Rooms and RedDoorz are included in HOTELS ranking but should be noted as unique hotel organizations not easily compared with traditional hotel companies .

Magnuson Worldwide , which last year claimed to represent almost 100,000 rooms , did not respond to repeated requests for data . As a result , HOTELS estimated Magnuson ’ s data based on a manual count and found only 30,000-plus rooms in its system . London-based Barony Hotels & Resorts Worldwide , which reported more than 33,000 rooms last year , did not respond to HOTELS request for data . No web-based data was found and the company was dropped from the ranking . Also dropped : Thomas Cook Group , which liquidated its hotel holdings in September 2019 , and Wanda Hotels & Resorts , which did not respond to requests for data and did not have web-based data available .

São Paulo-based Atlantica Hotels returned to the ranking after being inadvertently excluded last year .

Rosewood Hotel Group ’ s sale of Pentahotels created a reduction in its system of nearly 5,000 rooms .

34 hotelsmag . com July / August 2020