Global Hotels: The price of success - a 2026 RevPAR index

Are customers willing to pay more to stay at a Hilton Garden Inn or a Hyatt Place? How about a Holiday Inn Express or a Fairfield Inn? The relative pricing power of hotel brands is crucial in driving hotel performance, a key piece of information which will inform hotel developers investment decisions, and is an important sign of brand strength. Here we update our prior analysis done in 2021, 2022, and 2024 and identify more than 7,000 hotels which compete head to head with a hotel from a similar brand in the same US zip code, and extract forward pricing information to examine relative pricing power and RevPAR performance. Marriott is the ultimate winner on our relative ADR index — but there is little to separate Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG. After layering in occupancy the conclusion changes: Marriott still retains a RevPAR lead, but there is little to separate it from Hilton and Hyatt. IHG is the notable laggard. Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt can all claim champions by brand. On a company leve