Hotel Brands Multiply With Questionable Benefit To Travelers

Today's traveler faces a bewildering choice of hotel brands with similar-sounding and confusing names. Want to stay at a Hyatt? Take your pick. There's Hyatt Regency, Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place and, coming soon, Hyatt Centric. Vacationers once relied on big-name hotel brands to signal the kind of experience they could expect. People knew what Holiday Inn, Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott meant. Familiarity bred a sense of comfort. No longer. The world's 10 largest hotel chains now offer a combined 113 brands at various price points, 31 of which didn't exist a decade ago. Steve Joyce, CEO of Choice Hotels, whose 11 brands include Comfort Inn, EconoLodge, MainStay Suites and Cambria Suites, said "With very few exceptions, brands are probably overdone. I don't see a consumer demand."