PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—Analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) report that new hotel openings in the United States will accelerate over the next two years. This year the U.S. is scheduled to open a total of 742 new hotels. Based on the current construction pipeline, 845 hotels are forecast to open in 2016 with another 998 hotel openings in 2017. LE says that the growth in new hotel openings from 2016 to 2017 will be led by three major franchise companies, which are forecast to brand 67 percent of all new openings: Marriott International with 456 hotel openings, Hilton Worldwide with 406, and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 374.
