In the Lodging Econometrics (LE) second-quarter report for 2019, the franchise companies leading the United States hotel construction pipeline are Marriott International with 1,469 projects/193,458 rooms, up 9% by projects and rooms year-over-year (YOY).
Next, coming off of last quarter’s all-time high is Hilton Worldwide currently at 1,372 projects/152,853 rooms, a 3% increase YOY. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) follows with 962 projects/97,647 rooms, also up 3% by projects and rooms, YOY.
The leading brands in the construction pipeline for each of these three companies are Home2 Suites by Hilton with 413 projects/43,040 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 410 projects/38,814 rooms, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 300 projects/29,133 rooms.
Other prominent brands in the pipeline for these franchise companies are Tru by Hilton with 312 projects/30,254 rooms and Hampton by Hilton with 301 projects/31,271 rooms; Marriott’s Residence Inn with 207 projects/25,201 rooms and TownePlace Suites with 206 projects/21,468 rooms; and IHG’s Avid Hotel with 179 projects/16,316 rooms and Staybridge Suites with 156 projects/16,309 rooms. These leading and prominent brands together comprise 44% of all the projects in the total pipeline.
In the first half of 2019, 70% of the new hotels that opened in the U.S. belonged to Marriott, Hilton or IHG. Marriott opened 120 new hotels/15,429 rooms, Hilton opened 125 new hotels/14,553 rooms and IHG opened 69 new hotels/7,406 rooms.
The LE forecast for new hotel openings in 2020 anticipates that Marriott will open 285 projects/36,504 rooms. Next is Hilton with 274 projects/30,099 rooms, followed by IHG with 211 projects/20,412 rooms.
In 2021, LE forecasts that Marriott will open 328 new hotels/40,841 rooms, IHG to open 284 new hotels/27,810 rooms and Hilton to open 268 new hotels/29,373 rooms. Should all these hotels come to fruition, these three companies will continue their dominance opening 73% of all the new hotels in 2021.
