Using schema.org branchOf with itemref - microdata

Question

I have a company page that has all the local branches listed on it.
On the page header, I have an itemType of Organization defined.
Each LocalBusiness (Hotel) is further down the page.
For each Hotel, I'm trying to add the branchOf property using a meta tag, but both Yandex and Google Snippets comes up blank for this attribute. Is it possible to do this way?
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" id="schema-organization">
<meta itemprop="description" content="blah blah blah" />
<a href="/" itemprop="url">
<h1 itemprop="name">The Hotel Chain</h1>
</a>
<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<div itemprop="addressLocality">new york city</div>
<meta itemprop="addressRegion" content="NY" />
</div>
</div>
<!-- snip -->
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Hotel">
<meta itemprop="branchOf" itemref="schema-organization" />
<h2 itemprop="name">Hotel Location 1</h2>
Get directions on Google Maps
<div itemprop="geo" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/GeoCoordinates">
<meta itemprop="latitude" content="40.7450605" />
<meta itemprop="longitude" content="-73.98301879999997" />
</div>
<div class="wrap-address clearfix" itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<ul class="ul-reset">
<li><span itemprop="streetAddress">1234 Some Street</span> (between 3rd Ave & Lexington Ave)</li>
<li>
<span itemprop="addressLocality">New York City</span>,
<span itemprop="addressRegion">NY</span>
<span itemprop="postalCode">10016</span>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>Phone:</strong><span itemprop="telephone">555-555-5555</span></li>
<li><strong>Fax:</strong><span itemprop="faxNumber">555-555-5555</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Information:
info#hotellocation1.com
</li>
<li itemprop="contactPoint" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ContactPoint">
<span itemprop="contactType">Reservations</span>:
reservations#hotellocation1.com
</li>
<li itemprop="contactPoint" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ContactPoint">
<span itemprop="contactType">Concierge</span>:
Concierge#hotellocation1.com
</li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

About itemref:
it has to be specified on elements with itemscope
it is used to reference other properties (= itemprop in Microdata)
So this means for you:
move itemref to the Hotel
move itemprop="branchOf" to the Organization
Minimal example:
<div itemprop="branchOf" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" id="schema-organization">
<h1 itemprop="name">The Hotel Chain</h1>
</div>
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Hotel" itemref="schema-organization">
<h2 itemprop="name">Hotel Location 1</h2>
</div>