Three franchise companies in the U.S. dominate the hotel construction pipeline and openings through 2025

According to the most recent United States Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), in the second quarter of 2023, the franchise companies with the largest pipelines in the U.S. are Marriott International (Marriott) with 1,511 projects/181,632 rooms, Hilton Worldwide (Hilton) with record high project and room counts of 1,470 projects/164,848 rooms, and IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) with 811 projects/80,516 rooms. These three franchise companies comprise 68% of all projects in the total U.S. hotel construction pipeline.

The leading brands for each of these three companies are Home2 Suites by Hilton with record-highs of 565 projects/57,970 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 306 projects/28,756 rooms, and Marriott’s TownePlace Suites with all-time-high project and room counts of 345 projects/32,190 rooms.

Other prominent brands in the pipeline for these franchise companies are Marriott’s Residence Inn with a record-high 258 projects with 31,119 rooms; Hampton by Hilton with 292 projects/29,796 rooms; and IHG’s Avid Hotel with 132 projects/11,102 rooms.

In the second quarter of 2023, LE recorded a record-high 1,085 conversion projects, accounting for 106,408 rooms. Of these conversion totals, Hilton leads with 142 conversion projects/17,468 rooms. Following Hilton, the franchise companies with the largest number of conversion projects are G6 Hospitality, Marriott, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, and IHG. These five franchise companies combined account for 47% of the conversion projects across the U.S. at the Q2 close.

Through Q2, 60% of the new hotels that opened in the U.S. were branded Hilton, Marriott, or IHG. Hilton opened 57 new hotels/6,398 rooms, Marriott opened 56 new hotels/7,309 rooms, and IHG opened 22 new hotels/2,304 rooms.

Top brands with the largest number of openings in the first and second quarters of 2023 are Home2 Suites by Hilton with 19 new hotels/1,956 rooms, Hampton by Hilton with 19 new hotels/1,977 rooms, and Marriott’s SpringHill Suites with 9 new hotels/1,158 rooms.

LE anticipates that Hilton will open the largest number of new hotels in 2023 with 145 new hotel projects and 17,793 rooms for a growth rate of 2.3%. Next, Marriott is forecast to open 144 hotels/18,206 rooms for a growth rate of 2.0%, followed by IHG with 84 hotels/9,416 rooms for a growth rate of 2.2%.

In 2024, LE forecasts that Marriott will lead new hotel openings with 192 new hotels/22,898 rooms for a 2.5% growth rate. Also, with a growth rate of 2.5% in 2024, Hilton is anticipated to open 176 new hotels/with 20,004 rooms, and IHG with 111 new hotels/10,924 rooms.

In 2025, LE analysts predict Marriott will open 256 new hotels/29,572 rooms for a 3.1% growth rate, IHG is projected to open 202 new hotels/19,390 rooms for a 4.4% growth rate, and Hilton is forecast to open 139 new hotels/14,780 rooms in 2025, for a 1.8% growth rate.