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Marriott International has the global hotel sector’s most dominant loyalty platform, with 228 million members. However, rivals are closing the gap in an industry that has seen a 69% surge in rewards membership in the past six years, according to industry data.
Skift’s analysis of financial filings reveals that the world’s major hotel loyalty programs have collectively added more than 500 million loyalty program members since the end of 2018, highlighting the industry’s intensifying competition for repeat customers.
Hilton Honors has emerged as the fastest-growing major program, expanding its membership base by 247% to 210 million members. At current growth rates, Hilton could surpass Marriott Bonvoy’s membership count by late 2026, though recent strategic partnerships have helped Marriott maintain its lead.
Hilton’s loyalty program had the largest absolute growth, adding 125 million members. Marriott, IHG, and Wyndham also had remarkable gains by absolute number. Hyatt, IHG, and others grew more quickly relative to their size.
Hotel Loyalty Program Growth, 2018 to 2024
Rewards ProgramMembership as of end of 2024Membership at end of 2018Percentage GainAccor Live Limitless (ALL) 99 million*64 million54%Best Western Rewards57 million37 million54%Choice Privileges69 million35 million97%Global Hotel Alliance29.5 million13.6 million117%Hilton Honors210 million85 million247%World of Hyatt54 million16 million338%IHG One Rewards145 million95 million*52%J-Club199 million*181.6 million9%Marriott Bonvoy228 million125 million82%MeliaRewards15 million10 million50%Radisson Rewards20 million11 million (as of end of 2022)81%*Sonesta Travel Pass7 million*N/A (program changed)N/AWyndham Rewards114 million65 million 75%
Source: Financial filings, Skift reporting. *Asterisks: For December 2024 numbers, Accor’s, Sonesta’s, and Jin Jiang’s weren’t available. Instead, we used dates from within a few months of December 2024. For 2018 numbers, figures for IHG are estimated based on public disclosures of membership on the next-closest dates; Radisson’s program launched at the end of 2022; Sonesta’s number wasn’t available.
Hilton to Overtake Marriott?
Based on their six-year compound annual growth rates, Hilton Honors could surpass Marriott Bonvoy’s membership count in mid-to-late 2026 — with the milestone possibly disclosed in early 2027.
This assumes that both programs continue to grow at the same compound annual growth rate they enjoyed in the past six years without major changes in strategy or market conditions.
However, changes in acquisition strategy or market conditions could affect that forecast. In late 2023, we reported that Hilton was on track to overtake Marriott by the end of 2024, based on five-year compound growth rates.
That didn’t happen.
One reason was that Marriott signed a licensing partnership with MGM Resorts, which encouraged many of the 40 million members of the MGM Rewards program to sign up for Marriott Bonvoy, too. That helped Marriott add roughly 28 million members last year.
Yet Marriott shouldn’t be complacent. It can look to IHG as an example. IHG had the world’s first hotel loyalty program. It also used to have the largest one, with 76 million members as of July 2013. Yet by September 2020, it had over 100 million members and had fallen behind Marriott and Hilton in member count.
Predictions aside, Hilton and Marriott have such intense density in key markets that travelers find them unavoidable. This helps to drive sign-ups to their loyalty programs at a rate other hotel groups might envy. They also have the most heavily marketed co-branded credit cards, which also help drive sign-ups.
Hyatt’s and IHG’s Fast Growth
While the biggest players continue to dominate, some smaller programs are growing even faster.
Hyatt’s program showed the highest percentage growth of the 13 most prominent hotel loyalty programs, growing 3.6x from its 2018 membership base.
That said, Hilton had the second-greatest proportional increase relative to its starting size in 2018.
Hyatt says it’s fairer to compare hotel loyalty program performance by comparing the number of members per hotel. It recently said World of Hyatt had about 30% more members per hotel than its rivals. We were able to verify that claim, among its Western rivals.
IHG instead prefers a members-per-room metric. Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG, told Skift last month that the metric that “really matters is members per room.”
“Some hotel companies have fewer rooms than we do. Some hotel companies have more rooms. So if you look at the proportion of members per room, IHG is right up there with everybody — and growing quickly.”
When Skift compared the largest publicly held hotel groups, Hilton had the highest proportion of members to rooms. Hyatt came in second place and IHG third. Marriott didn’t perform well by this metric. (Table below.)
Hotel Loyalty Programs, Compared by Members Per Room, at the End of 2024
CompanyMember countNumber of roomsMembers per roomAccor99 million850,285116Choice69 million650,000106Hilton210 million1,260,000166Hyatt54 million347,301155IHG145 million987,000147Jin Jiang199 million1,500,000133Marriott228 million1,706,000133Wyndham114 million903,000126
*Footnote: Numbers as of December 31, 2024. Jin Jiang’s member count is as of September 30, 2024, and its December room count is estimated.
Missing Information
The industry has added over 500 million new loyalty members between 2018 and 2024.
However, the loyalty programs don’t distinguish between “active” members and anyone who has opened an account in their lifetime, making it difficult to measure program engagement.
The companies also don’t consistently reveal in public the fees they charge owners for guests who redeem reward stays.
Marriott International says that Marriott Bonvoy has the lowest loyalty charge-out rates in the industry. That was plausible, but we couldn’t independently verify that.
Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date
What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
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