Hilton is the no 1 hotel brand in the regions of Western Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin-America as measured by the BDRC Hotel Business Guest Surveys in 2007. The sole exception is the Nordic area.

Relative to its closest challenger Holiday Inn, Western Europe is by some margin Hilton's strongest market and its paramount status here, at this moment in time, is not truly threatened. On a country by country basis, however, Ibis takes the lead in both France and Germany while NH Hotels dominates in Spain.

In Asia Pacific and the Middle East Hilton takes over the top spot this year, but here, as in Latin America, its position as market leader is more seriously under threat with Hyatt, Sheraton and Marriott all contending for that coveted no. 1 position.

In addition, European chains such as Mövenpick (BDRC's most improved brand in the Middle East) are looking to expand and compete with the big players in the not too distant future. As in Europe, Hilton has to give way to stronger local brands in some individual countries like Shangri-La in China, Taj in India and Fiesta Americana in Mexico.

In Scandinavia, as in previous years, Hilton again features in 2nd place, having yet to break into Radisson SAS's hegemony and with the recent sale of Scandic the market will only become more challenging for the brand.

"Hilton records highest top of mind mentions of any hotel brand in all regions, including Nordic, and also is the most preferred brand based on the 1st and 2nd choice of business guests", says Tim Sander, Research Director at BDRC and responsible for the Hotel Guest Surveys.

"This is a fantastic achievement and quite clearly speaks for the strength of the brand in its sector. It will be difficult for any other hotel brand to challenge Hilton's current global position."

In 2008 BDRC will add the all important US market to its portfolio, as well as some Eastern European countries. "To conduct the survey in the US has been in the pipeline for the last two years," continues Sander, "and we are really excited about this addition. We have carried out several hotel research projects in the US before but this has never been representative
of the market, so it will be interesting to see which brand leads the field there."

The BDRC Hotel Guest Surveys were first launched in 1982 in Britain and are now conducted annually amongst more than 12,000 hotel business guests in the bespoke regions. The surveys focus on hotel brand awareness, usage, preference, and image perception. They also examine the hotel selection and reservation process, hotel & travel internet websites and other marketing issues.

1.      BDRC (Business Development Research Consultants Ltd) is one of the UK\`s leading independent marketing research agencies, with a dedicated Hotel and Hospitality Industry Research Team, the only one in Europe.

2.      Brand ranking determined by composite measure based on unaided and prompted awareness, usage, leading choice, general preference and preference amongst own users in each country and region measured.

3.      The BDRC Hotel Guest Surveys are conducted in almost 40 markets: Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, United States, Canada, Russia, Poland and Turkey.