Hospitality authorities point to myriad reasons, including changing market demographics, shifting appeals to owners and macroeconomic fluctuations. The hotel industry is unique, noted Chekitan Dev, distinguished professor of hospitality business at Cornell University, in the sense that brands are constantly birthed but not many die. As a result, he said,“ I like to say that hotel brands are not over-created but under-destroyed.”

One reason, said Dev, is that unlike goods— brands that can be phased out much easier— hotel brands are invested in by owners, who help to launch, grow and sustain them, given the multi-year duration of a typical franchise agreement,

and are not easy to phase out.

Brands are created for either demand-side or supply-side reasons, said Dev. Demand side reasons include: filling market gaps( an example is Hilton’ s Graduate Hotels, developed specifically for university markets); changing demographics( like Marriott International’ s citizenM for the urban, tech-forward, budgetconscious younger traveler); evolving market forces favoring more eco-friendly brands( think Starwood Hotels’ 1 Hotels) or the coming-of-age of tech-savvy traveler( newly represented by the AI-driven FlyZoo brand developed by Alibaba).

Supply-side reasons include existing brands that have oversaturated a particular market, especially where areas of protection exist, and a new brand or brand extension is needed to fill in a growing market— think IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Holiday Inn Express

brand extension to complement Holiday Inn or Tru by Hilton, which was developed as an alternative to Hampton by Hilton. Other new brands are disruptors of existing brands, such as a big-box brand like Signia by Hilton that seeks to disrupt a legacy brand like Sheraton Hotels. A third segment is conversion brands that offer owners the ability to flex to a new flag from either another brand or an independent— Spark by Hilton, as an example.

The market has changed, said Neil Jacobs, the former CEO

HOTEL BRANDS ARE NOT OVER- CREATED BUT UNDER-DESTROYED

– CHEKITAN DEV, DISTINGUISHED

PROFESSOR OF HOSPITALITY

BUSINESS, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

A city view suite at Janu Tokyo, which opened in March 2024. Janu is a sister brand to Aman.

8 hotelsmag. com November 2025