Originally Posted by
lost_in_translation
Firstly, I'm note sure just because a blogger said something it makes it true (although in this case, I would tend to agree that IHG has a minimal number of luxury properties).
More importantly, out of Marriott's 1.3m rooms globally as at the end of September 2018, only about 6.5% of them by my calculation are RC/Edition/W/St. Regis/LC/Bulgari. The other c.94% are made up of the Marriott brands that are in direct competition with an equivalent IHG brand, so not sure how you can deduce that IHG is not a competitor to Marriott from that!
In the global scope of hotels, sure, all brands are competing with all other brands to some extent. But I know in my own personal decision-making, the only place I'm ever thinking of IHG and Marriott as head-to-head competitors for any single booking decision is a rural stay - HIX vs. Fairfield Inn.
I'd add IC vs. JW or W if I ran into that scenario more often. I'd certainly add Kimpton to that list if there were more of them.
But IHG lacks a real presence in the mainline business hotel category, which is Marriott's bread and butter. Only way I'm staying in a janky old Holiday Inn or Crowne Plaza on a business trip is if every Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton within a 30 mile radius is sold out.
So from a loyalty program perspective (as opposed to individual-property perspective), Marriott probably considers their competition Hilton and Hyatt at this point. Regionally Accor, Fairmont, and maybe a couple others. They probably watch to see if Choice, IHG, or Radisson actually do something innovative, but Marriott doesn't need to respond to everything those programs do as they would with their real business-traveler competitors.