A compiled reference of 43 verified statistics on how hotels are audited: the quality-assurance and re-inspection fees the major brands disclose in their franchise disclosure documents (Hilton, Marriott, Wyndham, IHG, Hyatt, Best Western, Choice), the score thresholds and escalation programs behind them, Property Improvement Plan economics, and the published numbers of the third-party rating programs (Forbes Travel Guide, AAA Diamond, Michelin Keys, LQA, Coyle). Every figure is drawn from a named public source, most from the primary document itself, and independently checked before publishing.
Key statistics
8 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Brand audits are priced, escalating events: every major flag discloses re-inspection fees that grow with each failure, six-month improvement programs costing tens of thousands, and PIP economics that reach millions per hotel. On the rating side, the major programs publish enough numbers to size them precisely.
Failing Hilton QA costs $65 to $145 per room per consecutive Unacceptable grade, capped at $50,000 per half-year.
Days Inn re-inspection fees escalate $2,500, $3,000, $3,500 per consecutive failure.
Six months below Hilton's service minimums can cost $20,000 to $50,000 per half-year in its improvement program.
Forbes rates hotels on up to 900 criteria over a minimum two-night stay; service is 67% of the score.
AAA: 82 inspection points, roughly 145 Five Diamond hotels among 28,000+ Diamond hotels and restaurants.
Michelin's first global Key selection: 2,457 Key hotels, 143 with Three Keys, from 7,000+ selected.
A Comfort conversion PIP: $600,000 to $2.4 million in property improvements, per Choice's own FDD.
HVS: $2M to $8M PIP obligations, on top of costlier refinancing, mean many owners are forced to sell.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in August 2026 and checked against the original document before publishing.
- Read the primary documents
Seven franchise disclosure documents filed between 2023 and 2026 were downloaded and read in full: Hilton Hotels & Resorts (2025), Courtyard by Marriott (2026), Days Inn (2025), Holiday Inn (2023), Hyatt Place (2026), Best Western (2026), and Comfort (2026), the last five from filings with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Fee figures are quoted from Item 6 fee tables and related notes.
- Rating bodies from their own publications
Forbes Travel Guide award counts from its annual announcements, AAA from its newsroom and Diamond program pages, Michelin from its own releases, LQA and Coyle from their sites, plus trade press and one consulting analysis (HVS) where the primary is paywalled or unpublished.
- Only explicitly stated figures
We include only numbers a named source states directly, attributed inline where they appear. Where a fee has a cap or a trigger condition, the condition is stated with the number.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
All figures come from US domestic disclosure documents and are the amounts as disclosed; franchisors describe most as current amounts and retain discretion to change, reduce, or waive them (Hyatt's FDD, for example, states hotels can earn up to a 100% reduction of its improvement-program fees). FDD fees change with each annual renewal and differ between brands within the same company. Rating-body counts change with each award cycle. Confirm against the current document before relying on a figure in a decision.
Hotel audits, by the numbers
All 43 figures, grouped by theme, each from a named public source and independently verified.
What failing brand QA costs, from the FDDs
The clearest numbers in hotel auditing sit in franchise disclosure documents, because franchisors must disclose what they charge. Compiled across seven franchise disclosure documents filed between 2023 and 2026, the shape is similar even where the mechanics differ: most brands charge for the re-inspection itself, two publish an explicit per-failure ladder, and sustained failure moves the hotel into a paid improvement program. According to Hilton's 2025 FDD (hilton.com), the Brand Non-Compliance Fee is $65 to $145 per approved guest room for each consecutive Unacceptable QA grade, capped at $50,000 per six-month period. According to Marriott's 2026 Courtyard FDD (marriott.com), a hotel in "Red Zone 2" or higher pays $25 to $100 per guest room per tracking period, with the same $50,000 six-month cap.
| Brand (FDD year) | Re-inspection after a failure | Sustained-failure program | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| HiltonHilton Hotels & Resorts, 2025 | Up to $4,500 per re-evaluation; $5,500 per special audit | Service Quality Improvement Program: $20,000 to $50,000 per 6-month period | Non-compliance fee $65 to $145 per room per consecutive Unacceptable grade, cap $50,000 per 6 months |
| MarriottCourtyard, 2026 | Food-safety re-assessment $1,350 to $1,500, unannounced within 30 to 90 days until passing | Guest Experience and Accountability Program: $20,000 for up to 10 participants, plus $10,000 per additional 10, semi-annual | Red Zone charge $25 to $100 per room per tracking period (cap $50,000 per 6 months); $2,500 per required meeting; $12,000 per PIP issued |
| WyndhamDays Inn, 2025 | $2,500 / $3,000 / $3,500 for first / second / third-plus failure, plus inspector travel | Remedial training up to $1,250 on a failing or pass-with-action score | Penalty-free exit needs low occupancy plus 80%+ QA for two years and an 8.0/10 guest score |
| IHGHoliday Inn, 2023 | Escalating assessment up to $7,500 per re-evaluation, plus inspector room and board | Performance Compliance Program up to $13,500 per 3-month period after 6 months below the guest-score threshold | PIP inspection fee $7,500; failed-PIP re-inspections $5,000 per visit |
| HyattHyatt Place, 2026 | $2,000 per re-inspection after a failure | Focused Improvement Policy stages: $5,000 / $15,000 / $20,000 per 6-month stage | Annual QA inspection $1,500 to $2,000, disclosed as yearly |
| Best Western2026 | $2,500 / $3,500 / $5,000 for first / second / third failure, plus a room night for the inspector | Multiple failures within 18 months trigger a membership hearing | Failing band is a score of 600 to 799; territory protection requires averaging 50+ points above passing |
| ChoiceComfort, 2026 | None disclosed in the Item 6 fee table | Repeat QA failures below the brand's recommend threshold can require a paid third-party deep clean | PIP fee $3,000 on transfer; conversion property improvements estimated at $600,000 to $2,411,000 |
Compiled by RapidEye Research from each brand's franchise disclosure document (Item 6 fee tables and related notes); the five non-Hilton, non-Marriott FDDs were retrieved from filings with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Fees are as disclosed for the named brand and year.
Statistic 1
Hilton's Brand Non-Compliance Fee is $65 to $145 per approved guest room for each consecutive Unacceptable QA grade, capped at $50,000 per six-month period.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts franchise disclosure document, Item 6 (2025)
Statistic 2
Hilton charges up to $4,500 per re-evaluation verifying deficiencies were fixed, $5,500 per special audit, and $16,000 every six months for missed PIP or renovation deadlines.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts FDD, Item 6 (2025)
Statistic 3
Hilton assesses guest-service Stay Scores at least twice per year; missing the minimum costs up to $300 per guest room or 0.5% of gross rooms revenue annually.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts FDD, Item 6 (2025)
Statistic 4
A Hilton hotel below minimum service standards for more than 6 continuous months can be placed in a Service Quality Improvement Program costing $20,000 to $50,000 for each 6-month period.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts FDD, Items 6 and 11 (2025)
Statistic 5
Marriott's Courtyard charges $25 to $100 per guest room when a hotel falls into Red Zone 2 or higher in a QA tracking period (capped at $50,000 per six months), plus $2,500 per required meeting.
Courtyard by Marriott FDD, Item 6 (2026)
Statistic 6
A Courtyard that fails a food-safety audit pays $1,350 to $1,500 per re-assessment and is re-assessed unannounced within 30 to 90 days until it passes.
Courtyard by Marriott FDD, Item 6 (2026)
Statistic 7
Wyndham's Days Inn re-inspection fee escalates from $2,500 for the first failed quality inspection to $3,000 for the second and $3,500 for the third and beyond, plus inspector travel costs.
Days Inn FDD, Item 6, filed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce (2025)
Statistic 8
IHG's Holiday Inn charges an escalating assessment of up to $7,500 for each quality re-evaluation after a failure, plus the inspectors' room and board.
Holiday Inn FDD, Item 6, Minnesota Department of Commerce filing (2023)
Statistic 9
Hyatt Place charges $1,500 to $2,000 per annual on-site QA inspection and $2,000 for each re-inspection after a failure.
Hyatt Place FDD, Item 6, Minnesota Department of Commerce filing (2026)
Statistic 10
Best Western's quality re-assessment fee escalates $2,500, $3,500, $5,000 across the first three failures, plus a free room night for the inspector; multiple failures within 18 months trigger a membership hearing.
Best Western membership FDD, Item 6, Minnesota Department of Commerce filing (2026)
What this means: QA failure is not an abstract risk; it is a priced, escalating invoice. Across the six FDDs that disclose one, the cheapest quality re-inspection is Hyatt Place's flat $2,000; Marriott's $1,350 food-safety re-assessment is lower but covers food safety only. Note that flat fees and per-room fees are not directly comparable: Hilton's $65 to $145 per room on a 150-room hotel is $9,750 to $21,750 for a single consecutive Unacceptable grade, against Days Inn's flat $2,500 for a first failure.
Thresholds, escalation, and exits
The score lines are equally explicit. According to the Days Inn FDD (wyndhamhotels.com), remedial training of up to $1,250 can be required on a failing or "pass with action required" inspection or a guest-feedback score of 6.0 or below. A penalty-free early exit from the franchise is open only to a hotel whose occupancy is below 50% and at least 10 points under its Smith Travel Research tract, and that also posts two years of QA scores at 80% or higher and an average guest satisfaction score of at least 8.0 out of 10. According to Best Western's FDD (bestwestern.com), the scale is stated outright: a perfect assessment score is 1,000 points, below 850 can trigger stricter and more frequent assessments, and below 800 places the property on probationary status.
Statistic 11
Days Inn can require remedial training (up to $1,250) on a failing or "pass with action required" QA score, or a guest feedback score of 6.0 or below.
Days Inn FDD, Item 11 (2025)
Statistic 12
Penalty-free early termination of a Days Inn franchise requires, among other conditions, QA scores of at least 80% on all inspections for two years and an average Medallia guest satisfaction score of at least 8.0 out of 10.
Days Inn FDD, Item 17 (2025)
Statistic 13
Of 1,235 Days Inn locations in the US at the end of 2024, 497 (40%) met Wyndham's "Qualified Chain Facility" definition for its financial performance disclosures: passed the most recent QA inspection or not yet inspected, plus a comparable social review score. The remaining 60% is an eligibility screen, not a QA failure rate.
Days Inn FDD, Item 19 (2025)
Statistic 14
A Holiday Inn at or below IHG's "Reputable" guest-score threshold for more than six months can be placed in a Performance Compliance Program at up to $13,500 per 3-month period.
Holiday Inn FDD, Item 6 (2023)
Statistic 15
Hyatt's Focused Improvement Policy charges administrative fees of $5,000, $15,000, and $20,000 for stages 1 through 3, per six-month stage, for substandard condition or guest scores, with the FDD stating hotels are eligible for up to a 100% reduction of the fee based on improvement in performance.
Hyatt Place FDD, Item 11 (2026)
Statistic 16
Best Western scores its assessment out of 1,000 points: below 850 points, or a loss of more than 50 points in housekeeping or 100 in maintenance, can trigger stricter and more frequent assessments; below 800 places the property on probationary status.
Best Western membership FDD, Rules and Regulations section 500.17 (2026)
Statistic 17
Best Western scores quality assurance on a scale where 600 to 799 is a failing band, and exclusive-territory protection requires the last three QA scores to average at least 50 points above passing.
Best Western membership FDD, Items 6 and 12 (2026)
What this means: guest-review scores are now contractual QA inputs alongside the physical inspection: Days Inn writes Medallia into its exit terms, IHG's compliance program is triggered by guest scores, and Hyatt's improvement stages cite guest satisfaction. The audit is no longer only what an inspector sees; it is what guests keep reporting. Our guide to how hotel brand audits work walks the process end to end.
PIP economics
The Property Improvement Plan is where audit findings turn into capital spending. The plan document itself is cheap by comparison: $3,000 at Choice (Comfort transfers), $7,500 at Holiday Inn, $12,000 at Courtyard, per their FDDs. The work is not. According to Choice's 2026 Comfort FDD (choicehotels.com), converting an existing hotel to brand standards is estimated at $600,000 to $2,411,000 in property improvements. According to HVS (hvs.com), PIP obligations of $2 million to $8 million per hotel, layered on refinancing costing 300 basis points more than expected, mean "many owners are forced to sell."
Statistic 18
IHG's Holiday Inn charges a nonrefundable $7,500 fee for the inspection of a hotel and preparation of its PIP report.
Holiday Inn franchise disclosure document (2023)
Statistic 19
Marriott charges Courtyard franchisees $12,000 whenever it issues a PIP, including for conversions, transfers, and conversions of Marriott-managed hotels to franchised.
Courtyard by Marriott FDD, Item 6 (2026)
Statistic 20
Choice charges a $3,000 PIP fee on Comfort transfers, and its 2026 FDD estimates $600,000 to $2,411,000 in property improvements to convert an existing hotel to Comfort standards.
Comfort (Choice Hotels) FDD, Items 6 and 7 (2026)
Statistic 21
Missing PIP deadlines costs $16,000 every six months at Hilton and $5,000 per re-inspection visit at Holiday Inn until the work passes; Holiday Inn also charges up to $10,000 for missed soft-goods or case-goods renovations.
Hilton FDD (2025); Holiday Inn FDD (2023)
Statistic 22
PIP obligations of $2 million to $8 million per hotel, combined with refinancing costing 300 basis points more than expected, mean many owners are forced to sell.
HVS, hotel investment analysis (2026)
What this means: the audit-to-PIP pipeline is the largest quality-linked cost a franchised hotel faces, and the deadline fees mean a PIP is also a clock. For what triggers one and how the process runs, see what a hotel PIP is.
Forbes Travel Guide, by the numbers
According to Forbes Travel Guide (forbestravelguide.com), its inspectors evaluate properties against up to 900 objective criteria over hotel stays of a minimum of two nights. In a 2025 LEADERS Magazine interview (leadersmag.com), Forbes Travel Guide's president of standards and ratings described the algorithm as 67 percent service and 30 percent facility, with up to 3 percent for a guest-experience score, and said the average hotel is assessed against more than 500 standards. The 2026 Star Awards, announced via PR Newswire (prnewswire.com), named 343 Five-Star hotels among 2,422 total winners across more than 100 countries.
Statistic 23
Forbes Travel Guide inspectors evaluate against up to 900 objective criteria, and every hotel inspection stay lasts a minimum of two nights.
Forbes Travel Guide, methodology page (2026)
Statistic 24
Forbes Travel Guide's rating algorithm weights service at 67 percent and facility at 30 percent, with up to 3 percent for a subjective guest-experience score; the average hotel is assessed on more than 500 standards.
LEADERS Magazine interview with FTG's president of standards and ratings (2025)
Statistic 25
The 2026 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards recognized 2,422 properties, including 343 Five-Star, 708 Four-Star, and 679 Recommended hotels, spanning more than 100 countries, which Forbes Travel Guide called a milestone for the list.
Forbes Travel Guide 2026 awards announcement, via PR Newswire (2026)
Statistic 26
Five-Star hotel counts across recent cycles: 340 (2024), 336 (2025), 343 (2026), against total award lists of more than 2,000, more than 2,100, and 2,422 properties.
Forbes Travel Guide annual announcements, via PR Newswire (2024 to 2026)
Statistic 27
Macau led all cities with 28 Five-Star hotels in 2026, its fourth consecutive year on top, and Asia Pacific landed 40% of all new Five-Star hotels.
Forbes Travel Guide 2026 announcement, via Hospitality Net (2026)
Statistic 28
Forbes Travel Guide inspections are typically two-night, three-day stays; the guide fielded about 60 inspectors as of 2018.
TravelAge West interview with FTG (2018)
What this means: the published weighting (67% service against 30% facility) explains why Five-Star lists move slowly: Forbes Travel Guide states it inspects every property in person, "visiting anonymously as a typical guest," and service consistency across a two-night anonymous stay is the hardest thing to stage. How the inspection actually unfolds is covered in our Forbes Travel Guide inspection guide.
AAA Diamond, by the numbers
According to AAA (aaa.com), its hotel inspections use 82 points of inspection, its inspectors have evaluated hotels since 1937, and its current inventory includes more than 28,000 Diamond-designated hotels and restaurants, with roughly 145 Five Diamond and 1,750 Four Diamond hotels. The scale of the operation is documented too: a pre-2023 AAA release states inspectors arrive unannounced at more than 59,000 hotels and restaurants each year, and 2017 reporting by the Orlando Sentinel, published in The Seattle Times (seattletimes.com), put the corps at about 45 inspectors, with 1,185 properties failing inspection the prior year against 59,000 approvals, a roughly 2% failure rate.
Statistic 29
AAA hotel inspections use 82 points of inspection, and AAA inspectors have evaluated hotels since 1937.
AAA Diamond program page (2026)
Statistic 30
AAA lists roughly 145 Five Diamond hotels and 1,750 Four Diamond hotels among more than 28,000 Diamond-designated hotels and restaurants (2026); Five Diamond counts grew from about 130 in early 2024.
AAA Newsroom (2024 to 2026)
Statistic 31
In the pre-2023 program, AAA inspectors arrived unannounced at more than 59,000 hotels and restaurants each year across the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
AAA club publication (2023)
Statistic 32
In 2016, AAA approved 59,000 hotels and restaurants while 1,185 failed inspection (about a 2% failure rate), with roughly 45 inspectors; one Florida inspector alone conducted 982 on-site inspections that year.
Orlando Sentinel reporting, published by The Seattle Times (2017)
Statistic 33
In 2020, Five Diamond hotels were 0.4% of the nearly 27,000 AAA Diamond lodgings, and Four Diamond hotels 6.5% (1,718 hotels); Five Diamond status requires unannounced inspection, anonymous stays, and expert-panel review.
AAA Five Diamond and Four Diamond fact sheets (2020)
What this means: AAA publishes the closest thing to a base rate in hotel auditing: about 2% of inspected properties failed outright in the one year a fail count was reported, and the top tier was 0.4% of AAA's lodging inventory in the last year AAA published a lodging-only denominator (2020). The swab-test mechanics are in our AAA Diamond inspection guide.
Michelin Keys, by the numbers
The newest rating program published precise counts from day one. According to Michelin (michelin.com), the first global Key selection in October 2025 awarded Keys to 2,457 hotels: 1,742 One Key, 572 Two Keys, and 143 Three Keys, out of a Guide selection of more than 7,000 properties, after a 2024 rollout across 15 destinations. France led with 203 Key hotels, then Italy (188) and Germany (130). The Guide's hotel selection has since passed 9,000 properties across more than 100 countries, with the second global selection scheduled for September 18, 2026.
Statistic 34
Michelin's first global Key selection (October 2025) awarded Keys to 2,457 hotels: 1,742 One Key, 572 Two Keys, and 143 Three Keys, from a selection of more than 7,000.
Michelin media announcement (2025)
Statistic 35
France leads the 2025 Key selection with 203 Key hotels, followed by Italy (188) and Germany (130); North and Central America plus the Caribbean hold 526.
Michelin media announcement (2025)
Statistic 36
The inaugural US Key selection (April 2024) awarded 124 hotels Keys (11 Three, 33 Two, 80 One) from nearly 1,000 US Guide hotels; a September 2024 expansion added 288 more across North America, reaching 412.
Michelin media announcements (2024)
Statistic 37
The Key program grew from about 1,400 Key hotels in a 6,000-property selection (October 2024) to 2,457 in a 7,000-plus selection (October 2025); the Guide selection now exceeds 9,000 hotels in more than 100 countries.
Michelin releases and MICHELIN Guide editorial (2024 to 2026)
Statistic 38
Keys are awarded on anonymous stays or visits, judged on five universal criteria; more than 220 Leading Hotels of the World member hotels held Keys in the 2025 selection.
Michelin; The Leading Hotels of the World (2025)
What this means: roughly one in three hotels in Michelin's own curated selection holds a Key, but only 2% of the selection holds Three Keys. In absolute terms the top tiers are strikingly close in size: 143 Three-Key hotels against roughly 145 AAA Five Diamond hotels, reached by completely different routes. The second global selection lands September 18, 2026.
LQA, mystery audits, and what audits correlate with
On the commissioned-audit side, LQA (lqagroup.com) states it assesses more than 7,000 hotel nights annually across 3,000-plus hotels in over 130 countries, with typical assessments of 1 to 3 nights and a recommended minimum of two per year. Coyle Hospitality (coylehospitality.com) reports more than 350,000 evaluations facilitated since 1996 through a network of over 100,000 evaluators. The wider mystery-shopping industry those firms sit in was valued at $2.31 billion globally in 2025, per Fortune Business Insights (fortunebusinessinsights.com). And the revenue stakes of the quality these audits measure are quantified by 2012 Cornell Center for Hospitality Research work (cornell.edu): a 1% improvement in a hotel's online reputation score is associated with up to 0.89% higher ADR, 0.54% higher occupancy, and 1.42% higher RevPAR.
Statistic 39
LQA assesses hotels against more than 1,000 luxury standards, covering more than 7,000 hotel nights annually across 3,000-plus hotels in over 130 countries; typical assessments run 1 to 3 nights, with a recommended minimum of 2 per year.
Leading Quality Assurance, company and product pages (2026)
Statistic 40
Coyle Hospitality has facilitated more than 350,000 mystery-shop evaluations since 1996 through a network of more than 100,000 evaluators.
Coyle Hospitality Group, company page (2026)
Statistic 41
The global mystery-shopping services market was valued at $2.31 billion in 2025, projected to reach $3.61 billion by 2034; North America held 43.89% of it.
Fortune Business Insights, market report (2026)
Statistic 42
A US study in which 916 Gen Z college students mystery-shopped hotels against 25 service standards (2020 to 2023) found food orders taken within 5 minutes only 58.5% of the time, tables cleared within 3 minutes 51.8%, and loyalty programs promoted at only 30% of properties.
University of Central Florida researchers, published via Hospitality Net (2025)
Statistic 43
A 1% increase in a hotel's online reputation score is associated with up to 0.89% higher ADR, up to 0.54% higher occupancy, and up to 1.42% higher RevPAR.
Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, Anderson (2012)
What this means: commissioned audits sample a property a night or three at a time, a few times a year, which is why brands also wire continuous signals (guest scores, review scores) into their QA programs, and why the stretch between audits is where a property's condition is least observed. The named firms are compared in Coyle vs LQA.
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
What does failing a hotel brand quality inspection cost?
Per the brands' own franchise disclosure documents: Wyndham's Days Inn charges $2,500 for the first failed inspection's re-inspection, $3,000 for the second, and $3,500 for the third; Best Western charges $2,500, then $3,500, then $5,000; IHG's Holiday Inn charges an escalating assessment of up to $7,500 per re-evaluation; Hilton charges up to $4,500 per re-evaluation plus $5,500 per special audit, and a Brand Non-Compliance Fee of $65 to $145 per guest room for each consecutive Unacceptable grade, capped at $50,000 per six-month period; Hyatt Place charges $2,000 per re-inspection. Sustained failure costs more: Hilton's Service Quality Improvement Program runs $20,000 to $50,000 per six-month period, and Hyatt's Focused Improvement Policy stages cost $5,000, $15,000, then $20,000 per six-month stage.
How many standards do hotel rating programs evaluate?
Forbes Travel Guide evaluates up to 900 objective criteria, with more than 500 applying to the average hotel; its algorithm weights service at 67 percent, facility at 30 percent, and a guest-experience score at up to 3 percent. LQA measures luxury hotels against more than 1,000 standards. AAA's Diamond hotel inspection uses 82 points of inspection. Michelin Keys are judged on five universal criteria through anonymous stays.
How often are hotels audited by their brand?
Where a frequency is published: Hyatt Place discloses an annual on-site quality assurance inspection ($1,500 to $2,000 per inspection), Hilton assesses guest-service Stay Scores at least twice per year, AAA inspects Diamond properties annually and unannounced, and LQA recommends a minimum of two assessments per year for hotels using its program. Failed inspections trigger re-inspections on much shorter cycles; Marriott's food-safety re-assessments, for example, occur unannounced within 30 to 90 days of a failure until the hotel passes.
How many Forbes Five-Star, AAA Five Diamond, and Michelin Key hotels are there?
For 2026, Forbes Travel Guide named 343 Five-Star hotels among 2,422 total award winners across more than 100 countries. AAA lists roughly 145 Five Diamond hotels and about 1,750 Four Diamond hotels among more than 28,000 Diamond-designated hotels and restaurants. Michelin's first global Key selection (October 2025) awarded Keys to 2,457 hotels, of which 143 hold Three Keys, out of a selection of more than 7,000; the selection has since grown past 9,000 hotels.
What does a hotel PIP cost?
The plan document itself costs $3,000 at Choice (Comfort transfers), $7,500 at IHG's Holiday Inn, and $12,000 at Marriott's Courtyard, per their franchise disclosure documents. The renovation work is the real number: Choice's 2026 Comfort FDD estimates $600,000 to $2,411,000 in property improvements for a conversion, and HVS reports that PIP obligations of $2 million to $8 million per hotel, combined with costlier refinancing, mean many owners are forced to sell. Missing PIP deadlines has its own price: Hilton charges $16,000 every six months and Holiday Inn $5,000 per re-inspection until the work passes.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original before publishing. Franchise disclosure figures were read from the named brand's FDD for the year shown; the Holiday Inn figures come from its 2023 filing and may have changed in later renewals. Five of the seven were retrieved from filings with the Minnesota Department of Commerce; the Hilton and Marriott documents were published on those companies' own hotel development sites.
HiltonHilton Hotels & Resorts franchise disclosure document, 2025, Items 6 and 11hilton.com
Marriott InternationalCourtyard by Marriott franchise disclosure document, 2026, Item 6marriott.com
Wyndham Hotels & ResortsDays Inn franchise disclosure document, 2025, Items 6, 11, 17, and 19wyndhamhotels.com
IHG Hotels & ResortsHoliday Inn franchise disclosure document, 2023, Items 6 and 11ihg.com
HyattHyatt Place franchise disclosure document, 2026, Items 6 and 11hyatt.com
Best WesternMembership franchise disclosure document, 2026, Items 6 and 12bestwestern.com
Choice HotelsComfort franchise disclosure document, 2026, Items 6 and 7choicehotels.com
Forbes Travel GuideMethodology page and annual Star Awards announcements, 2024 to 2026forbestravelguide.com
AAADiamond program pages, newsroom releases, and 2020 fact sheetsaaa.com
MichelinMICHELIN Key announcements and Guide editorial, 2024 to 2026michelin.com
Leading Quality AssuranceCompany and hotel-assessment pageslqagroup.com
Coyle Hospitality GroupCompany pagecoylehospitality.com
HVS2026 hotel investment analysishvs.com
Cornell Center for Hospitality Research2012 study on online reputation and lodging performancecornell.edu
Hospitality NetFTG 2026 coverage, Cornell release, and the UCF mystery-shopping studyhospitalitynet.org
PR NewswireForbes Travel Guide award announcements, 2024 to 2026prnewswire.com
The Seattle Times2017 Orlando Sentinel report on AAA inspectionsseattletimes.com
The Leading Hotels of the World2025 Michelin Keys member announcementlhw.com
Fortune Business InsightsMystery shopping services market reportfortunebusinessinsights.com