When Not to Judge a Hotel by Its Name : Lodging: Big-time chains are putting their names on properties that they don’t own or even manage.

Next month, the 68-year-old Hotel Sainte Claire in San Jose formally becomes the Hyatt Sainte Claire.

Does this mean Hyatt has bought the property? Or has taken over management? No and no. In fact, Hyatt Hotels Corp. owns no hotels. The Sainte Claire will continue to be owned by Hotel Sainte Claire Partners and managed by Mobedshahi Hotel Group of San Francisco.

What the new name means is that the international name game among the world’s largest hotel companies--a game that was already being played far over the heads of most travelers--just got even more complicated.

The San Jose deal is the first in “a limited number” of franchise agreements that will confer the Hyatt name on hotels that are neither owned nor managed by Hyatt. (Hyatt is owned by the Pritzer Family Trust, which does have interests in many hotels.) For Hyatt officials, who manage 166 hotels and resorts for independent owners worldwide, this means a chance to expand their name’s presence in the marketplace without the trouble of actually managing a property. For the hotels’ owners and managers, it means drawing on benefits of the Hyatt marketing and reservation network, so long as they meet Hyatt standards. Many other chains, including Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson and Marriott, have been franchising hotels for years.

For many travelers, a hotel’s name makes no difference, so long as there’s a clean and comfortable room when you need it. But when it comes time to lodge a complaint or a compliment, it helps to know that the name you see in lights is probably not the name of the hotel’s owner, and may not be the name of the hotel’s management company, either. Here’s a score card on some familiar hotel industry players:

Best Western. Best Western International Inc. is essentially a membership organization. Its 3,400 member and affiliate hotels worldwide, each independently owned and managed, may be budget-oriented, mid-priced or high-end operations. But all must meet common standards and pay an annual membership fee in exchange for benefits from centralized marketing, reservation services and supplies. A spokesman reports that 99% of Best Western properties “re-affiliate” every year; in other words, it’s rare for a hotel to drop out or be dropped.

Biltmore. The original Biltmore was an 1895 mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt near Asheville, N.C. Before the economic collapse of 1929, Vanderbilt allowed hotelier John McEntee Bowman to use the Biltmore name on a series of luxury lodgings, which reached New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Coral Gables and elsewhere. But the chain fractured, and the properties that remain today have no ties to each other. The Santa Barbara Biltmore is managed and principally owned by the Toronto-based Four Seasons hotel management company. The Los Angeles Biltmore is controlled by Japanese owners. Hotel representatives say that as far as they know, any lodging can declare itself a Biltmore. Hence, 100 miles south of the landmark Los Angeles Biltmore (nightly rates: $185-$450), a traveler on La Jolla Boulevard can roll up to an utterly unrelated 17-unit motel with rates of $28-$42 nightly: The La Jolla Biltmore.

Hilton. In 1967, Hilton Hotel Corp. sold off its international subsidiary, but held on to its U.S. hotel business. As 1994 began, there were 23 U.S. Hiltons owned or leased long-term by the parent company, about 160 U.S. Hilton franchises run by independent owners and management companies (who must meet Hilton standards and pass a percentage of revenues on to Hilton, as in most hotel franchise deals), and eight independently owned, Hilton-managed international properties that operate under the name Conrad Hotels. Meanwhile, the entirely separate Hilton International, owned by Ladbroke Group Plc. of England, manages 55 Hilton International hotels worldwide, and has minority or majority ownership in about 50 of those. Hilton International also manages the Kahala Hilton on Oahu and five hotels in the eastern United States under the brand name Vista.

Holiday Inn. Of 1,925 Holiday Inn properties worldwide on Sept. 30, 1,754 were franchise operations and 171 were company-managed hotels. Some of the company-managed hotels, including 58 in North and South America, are company-owned as well. Holiday Inn Worldwide is owned by the conglomerate Bass Plc. of London.

Howard Johnson. There are about 615 Howard Johnson and HoJo Inn hotels worldwide--up about 65 from a year ago--and all are franchise operations. The hotel name is owned by the publicly held global giant Hospitality Franchise Systems Inc., which also franchises Ramada (750 hotels), Days Inn (1,550 hotels) and Super 8 (1,200 hotels).

Marriott. Last year, Marriott Corp. split into two companies. One is Marriott International, which manages or franchises about 850 properties worldwide, including the brands Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn by Marriott and Residence Inn by Marriott. Of the roughly 250 full-service Marriott Hotels, Resorts and Suites worldwide, Mariott International manages about 175 and franchises another 77. Meanwhile, the old other half of Marriott Corp., Host Marriott, owns 34 full-service Marriott hotels.