CMA investigates Hilton, IHG and Marriott over alleged sharing of hotel data with STR

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched an official investigation into three of the world’s largest hotel groups, Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott International, over concerns they may have shared “competitively sensitive” information through a third-party data analytics platform.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was investigating whether hotel operators exchanged commercially sensitive data using STR, a widely used industry benchmarking tool owned by CoStar Group.

Together, these three hotel groups operate more than 25,000 hotels worldwide, giving the investigation significant weight in the international tourism sector.

Hotel chains typically use analytics platforms like STR to track industry metrics including occupancy rates, average daily rates and revenue per available room (RevPAR). Such tools can help operators adjust prices in response to demand and competition.

However, the CMA has warned that when rival businesses share competitively sensitive information, or indirectly through a third-party provider, it may reduce uncertainty between competitors and mitigate competition risk.

“When competing businesses share competitively sensitive information, including with a third-party analytics provider, this reduces the uncertainty competing businesses often have about how each other will perform,” the regulator said.

“This can have an impact on companies being more competitive because it makes it easier for them to predict what they will do and coordinate their behavior.”

The watchdog will now spend up to six months gathering evidence before deciding whether to issue a formal statement of objections.

At this stage, the CMA stressed that no conclusion had been reached and no conclusions had to be made as to whether competition law had been breached.

Shares in London-listed IHG fell nearly 5 percent in early trading on Monday, although the wider travel sector was also under pressure from political tensions in the Middle East.

In the US, shares of Hilton and Marriott each fell about 3 percent, while CoStar, which has a market value of more than 18 billion dollars, fell about 2 percent.

IHG and Hilton have both confirmed that they are fully cooperating with the CMA’s investigation. CoStar said it was surprised by the regulator’s interest in what it described as “long-standing hotel data analytics” that has been used by companies and government agencies for decades.

Marriott did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

If the CMA concludes that competition laws have been breached, it has the power to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover.

The regulator can also offer immunity or reduced fines to companies that report cartel activity early and cooperate with investigations.

The investigation is part of the CMA’s wider review of how digital tools and algorithms are used in pricing decisions across sectors.

The watchdog has focused on the intersection of competition law and technology, warning that algorithmic pricing systems, while improving efficiency, must not create anti-competitive coordination.

The hospitality probe comes amid a series of high-profile competition cases in recent years.

In November, the CMA opened an investigation into eight companies over online pricing practices. Last year, the UK’s seven biggest housebuilders agreed to invest £100 million in affordable housing schemes after the regulator found evidence of information sharing that could affect competition.

The latest case underscores growing regulatory concerns that data-sharing arrangements, even when mediated by data providers, can blur the line between legitimate measurement and illicit communications.

In the hotel sector, the outcome of the investigation could have important implications for how pricing data is shared, analyzed and used across the industry.