Grow your existing brands? Sounds good in principle. But eventually hotel developers realise that if they build a Park or Grand, they will soon be inundated with Globalists (or GoH buyers) spending points and wanting everything for free. There are only so many cities / places in the world where people actually pay the required room rate to make that level of service profitable. It makes far more sense to build a cost-controlled brand, and the other major chains are doing a better job of attracting that development. (partially because they are more willing to screw their own elite members)

AI and sub-scale brands are where the growth is going to come from for Hyatt. "I'd rather Hyatt stayed small" - how did that work out for SPG devotees...

I may or may not ever stay at many of these new brands, but I'll gladly cash in the extra Brand Explorer FNAs if I do...