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One of the more popular travel blogs out there is The Points Guy. Founded in 2010 by Brian Kelly, he wrote typical “travel blogger” topics of frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and travel goals.

Kelly sold The Points Guy to Bankrate, a company that publishes and promotes financial content, in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, The Points Guy acquired three competing travel websites, Mommy Points, Million Mile Secrets and Travel is Free (Million Mile Secrets was the very first entity to ever give us a shout out, about 3 months after we had started writing YMMV).

By 2017, Kelly had been named the top influencer for travel by Forbes magazine. Around the same time, Bankrate was acquired by Red Ventures, a digital marketing company.

“The Points Guy” has continued to grow under the Bankrate umbrella. They have several bloggers who work for them, and are known for their news stories – granted, often sponsored – about travel. Hotels, airlines, credit cards, accumulating and hotel points and frequent flyer miles, etc.

If you Google “The Points Guy,” you get what’s closing in on 2 billion hits. And the “The Points Guy” entity is constantly being quoted in social media. In fact, The Points Guy is so big that a lot of people just refer to the entity as “TPG” and people know who/what they’re talking about.

And that’s where an interesting situation popped up the other day.

One of our readers said they were on LinkedIn the other day and saw a company listed called TPG Hotels & Resorts.

About
TPG Hotels, Resorts, & Marinas is a premier hotel management company, operating hotel properties throughout the United States and all chain scales. By combining decades of industry experience with world-class resources, TPG Hotels & Resorts brings the best solutions to drive profitability for our clients, and their portfolios.

They delved a little further and discovered a LinkedIn post from TPG Hotels & Resorts that suggested they were buying three hotels.

We are so thrilled to announce the addition of three stunning Buffalo properties to our portfolio. We’ve partnered with Douglas Development to manage The Richardson Hotel, The Roycraft Inn, and The Mansion on Delaware. These historic gems are in expert hands, and we can’t wait to elevate their charm and performance in the market. Stay tuned for more updates! #BuffaloHospitality#NewAdditions#TPGHospitality#TPGhotels#tpghttps://lnkd.in/ePtkdZEE

So they asked us,

Is The Points Guy running a chain of hotels or something?

Short answer: No.

TPG a.k.a. “The Points Guy”

The Points Guy/TPG is exactly what I said before. An umbrella (now with 100+ employees) for several bloggers. An influencer. They’ve admittedly gotten into politics a little and developed a travel-related app. They’ve even partnered with a nonprofit to donate frequent flyer miles to help Nobel Peace Prize winners travel to developing countries.

There have also been some questions about there being a toxic working environment at The Points Guy, “selling out” for positive reviews, overuse of AI, losing sight of the blog’s original vision, a lawsuit from American Airlines over a portion of their app, etc.

But the bottom line is that people at The Points Guy/TPG may STAY at a bunch of hotels, but they don’t own them.

TPG Hotels & Resorts

TPG Hotels & Resorts is a hospitality management company. That’s defined as, “…a broad field that involves overseeing the day-to-day administrative, operational and commercial activities of businesses in the hospitality industry.”

From the company itself:

Built on a deep understanding of successful hotel operations, our company offers comprehensive assistance with experienced hotel managers, revenue management, sales, marketing, accounting, finance, human resources, purchasing, and information technology.

And…

TPG Hotels & Resorts is a fully accredited operator and developer of the industries most respected brands including Accor, InterContinental, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham that together represent over 40 hotel flags. With over 60 hotels and nearly 18,000 guestrooms currently under management coast to coast, TPG Hotels & Resorts is recognized throughout the industry as a leader in performance, service, and quality. TPG Hotels & Resorts’ senior operational and development executives lead a national workforce of more than 10,000 highly skilled hospitality professionals dedicated to effectively balancing the priorities of the brands and ownership groups, while delivering exceptional guest services.

Doesn’t sound like that “other” TPG at all. 😉

Oh, and TPG Hotels & Resorts has been in business since 1985 (note: 25 years before The Points Guy started. Brian Kelly would’ve been about 1 year old in 1985 LOL).

So nope, not the same company. And frankly, I don’t see The Points Guy getting into hotel management any time soon. 😉

And by the way, TPG can also be:

• TPG Capital (a private equity firm)
• TPG Telecom (a communications technology company based in Australia)
• TPG (a global alternative asset management firm)
• TPG Architecture
• TPG Real Estate Financial Trust
• TPG Software (they focus on investment accounting)
• TPGi (they deal in digital accessibility solutions)
• Teall Properties Group (a.k.a. TPG) (a multi-media rights partner for national and state high school athletics)
• TPG Series (a specific type of construction pump)
• TPG Direct (they’re involved in insurance marketing)
• And the list goes on and on…

Feature Image (cropped): Rawpixel

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary