In more detail, the ranking shows Best Western holding its top position despite a drop of 2% in its supply (-1.423 rooms). Ibis and Mercure, the 2 Accor brands strengthen their positions on the other hand (2^nd and 3^rd place) and recorded rises of 3.3% (+1.773 rooms) and 2.7% (+1.406 rooms). The most spectacular increase of the year is also attributed to Accor: Novotel posted a rise of 4.068 rooms (12.1%) and holds its 5th place ranking. As in 2003, Holiday Inn slid in between the three brands of the Accor group (in 4^th place). The British brand saw a rise of 4.0% (+1.530 rooms) during the course of the year 2003. Outside these differences between the leaders of the ranking and their close "followers", there are few changes to be seen. The major change, Etap Hotel entered into the top 10 in 2004 thanks to a 9.4% rise (+1.922 rooms) in the brand's portfolio. Three other significant changes within the top 25 are worth noting: Travel Inn, the budget brand of the British Whitbread, with locations only in the United Kingdom, rose from the 16^th to 12^th place in Europe due to a 12.4% (+1.999 rooms); Melia grew by 6.3% (929 rooms) and went from 21^st place to 16^th in Europe ; Sofitel grew by 34.7% (+3733 rooms) and went from 29^th to 21^st place. Other brands also rose up in the 2004 ranking, this is the case with Radisson (14^th), Riu Hoteles (15^th), Ramada International (17^th), Sheraton (24^th) and Travelodge (25^th).

At the end of the year that was without a doubt the most difficult for the worldwide tourism industry since the crisis that followed the 1991 Gulf war, major operators will have therefore been cautious. Contrary to the previous years, few mergers or acquisitions took place in 2003 other than the acquiring of the French B&B by the British Duke Street Capital and the acquisition of Premier Lodge by The Spirit Group. At this beginning of a new year, major movements are still not occurring with the exception nevertheless of the debt of the Le Méridien chain taken over by Lehman Brothers and Starwood which may foresee a fusion between these two groups.

MKG Consulting has the largest hotel database in the world outside the USA. with the best representation of all the hotel segments. The MKG Consulting Database includes over 40.000 hotels. representing more than 2.2 million rooms. The activity results of the MKG Consulting Database are from a sample of 9.000 corporate operated chain hotels. representing 1.100.000 rooms. These results are from data that has been supplied by the chain hotels in France and Europe. for which MKG Consulting is the official statistics supplier.