March 22, 2025
Most people think that when they stay at a Marriott or Hilton, that Marriott or Hilton actually own the hotel. That used to be the case but has totally changed in the last few decades. There are actually three entities that comprise a hotel - who owns the property, who the brand is, and who employs the associates that work there.
It used to be that these were all one and the same, but now they are more likely to be different entities. The owner is now more likely to be a private equity company or Wall St firm, particularly for the large scale hotels. The hotel is more likely to be part of a brand family like Marriott, Hilton, or Choice hotels. And the employer is more likely to be a "third party hotel manager" hired by the hotel owner with no equity stake in the hotel itself.
As all these pieces have gotten split up, each piece of the business has become more institutionalized and dominated by Wall St, private equity, and billionaires. The only space that remains where the owner, brand, and employer are the same entity are the small, boutique independent hotels.
But when they are the same entity, that's when something truly special and magical happens with your travel experience. You are no longer enriching faceless distant corporations. You are enriching that property directly and the people associated with it. And you are more likely to meet associates (and even the owner personally) that care about you and your travel experience, instead of people just working for a paycheck.
These small, boutique independent hotels are now under threat because the big billionaire players are running out of large scale opportunities. Equation Travel will be doing its part to help these independent hotels thrive as opposed to being gobbled up by corporations. They are critical to communities and critical to creating treasured travel experiences.