Name: Hyatt’s Hotel Business Strategy and How It Compares to Competitors
Uploaded: 2024-04-03T12:17:00Z
Duration: 4 min 24 s
Description: Marriott and Hilton are five times larger than Hyatt by property count. But with 70% of its rooms categorized as luxury and upper upscale, Hyatt's portfolio shows it wants to play in a different league. We explore this strategy and how it attracts more than just overnight guests. Photo: Ryan Kolegas

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Marriott and Hilton are five times larger than Hyatt by property count. But with 70% of its rooms categorized as luxury and upper upscale, Hyatt's portfolio shows it wants to play in a different league. We explore this strategy and how it attracts more than just overnight guests. Photo: Ryan Kolegas

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Hyatt’s Hotel Business Strategy and How It Compares to Competitors

Adam: Of the major hotel brands, Hyatt Hotels is 1/5 the size of its competitors in terms of property count. It has fewer rooms, fewer loyalty members, and is in fewer countries around the world. But look a little closer and you'll see that Hyatt wants to play in a different league. Because one area where Hyatt exceeds its competitors is its average room rate.

One of the fundamental differences is that we serve a much higher end customer base. Our World of Hyatt members spend more on property. They spend more in average daily rate. They are very good customers.

This is "The Economics of Hyatt Hotels." In 2017, Hyatt began selling off its properties to outside owners, earning itself over $960 million. This allowed it to keep its name on these hotels but without the financial risk that comes with owning that real estate, a model known as asset light. It's a strategy other hotel chains put into play decades ago. Did waiting a bit longer allow you to be more deliberate in making the decision?

No question. We didn't wanna do it in a wholesale fashion and basically accept discounts for speed when we thought a more deliberate approach would actually pay off for our shareholders.

Adam: Now, Hyatt owns about 2% of its properties. But while Hyatt has been selling off its real estate, it's collected in other areas of the business. Hyatt has more than doubled the number of luxury rooms in its portfolio, tripled resort rooms, and quadrupled rooms in what it calls the lifestyle category. And for the most part, it has accomplished this without buying more real estate. Instead, Hyatt has mainly purchased smaller companies focused on the branding and booking aspects of the business, companies that already have a loyal following in the luxury space. For a combined $3.7 billion, it bought Miraval Group, Two Roads Hospitality, Apple Leisure Group, and Dream Hotel Group, bringing brands like Alila, Destination, and Thompson under the Hyatt umbrella. These brands do bring more complex logistics with additional amenities, but those amenities are treated as an asset, bringing in clientele beyond the overnight guests.

A lot of them are larger hotels where we can accommodate our customers and hold big meetings and conventions.

Adam: And things like restaurant, spas, and roof decks can bring in more local customers.

The best performing restaurants and the best performing outlets that we've got are ones that have a local following. Thompson Hotels have roof decks and celebratory spaces, the restaurants tend to be really vibrant, so they become real draws to that brand in particular. The degree to which we are serving the local community is equal to guests of the hotel actually using those outlets.

Adam: But where Hyatt falls short is its global presence. There, Hyatt trails its competitors. Analysts say this could explain Hyatt's recent acquisition, the luxury hotel booking platform Mr & Mrs Smith, which Hyatt bought for approximately $72 million. At the time of the acquisition, Mr & Mrs Smith had more than 1,500 properties, propelling Hyatt to more than 20 new countries. Hyatt doesn't actually own any of these properties, but it does plan to integrate some into its loyalty program this year. This expansion also brings a pool of luxury customers. When Hyatt bought Mr & Mrs Smith, it had 1 million members, established customers who will likely become loyalty members in the World of Hyatt. These customers were a big draw for the company since World of Hyatt members stay 46% more in a year the non-members, spend 76% more on average, and book direct 90% of the time. The company says that the revenue from one top tier member is equivalent to 40 non-members.

They're frequent travelers, by definition. They are highly qualified customers. And they spend more money.

Adam: And its acquisition strategy is targeting a very specific customer base.

All of the brands that we bought serve higher end customers. So the first screen that we use, is there a connectivity between the existing customer base for those brands and our customer base? And either, is it complimentary or is it additive to the existing customer base that we've got and more diversity in terms of markets and types of offerings?

Where do you see the hotel industry sort of evolving?

People will be looking for more diverse experiences, not just stay experiences, not just different types of hotel brands to stand, but different experiences. And I think that that will be a pathway towards really having a bigger share of the travel wallet for our core customer base.