Originally Posted by
8420PR
My opinion is that in Europe the chains have a lower market share, so face increased competition which drives up quality (with some exceptions) as branded hotels need to justify a higher price (to pay license fees) compared to independent hotels
Yes but there's a deeper cause behind it: Europe has fewer "captive" customers. This is closely tied to the credit card game not being a huge deal over here, therefore most people will choose by value whereas in the US you get quite a lot of customers who have points, vouchers, credits and whatnot. This causes the effect you described in your post.
European properties are forced to compete on quality because most people will pick 4/5 independent hotel over 3/5 chain hotel (myself as an elite in two programmes included). Whereas in the US it's usually the other way around.
You can also see how European properties with primarily US customer base (e.g. in tourist trap cities like Venice, Barcelona etc) tend to quickly go down the drain the same way US properties do.