PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Marriott International’s hotel construction pipeline has reached an all-time high with 1,579 projects/207,906 rooms—the largest of any franchise company, according to Lodging Econometrics‘ year-end report for 2019. Hilton Worldwide and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) followed with 1,370 projects/152,832 rooms and 943 projects/96,725 rooms, respectively. These three franchise companies accounted for 68 percent of the hotel projects in the total pipeline at the year’s end.
The leading brands by project count for these three companies continue to be Hilton’s Home2 Suites by Hilton with 408 projects/42,346 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 379 projects/39,644 rooms, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 322 projects/31,119 rooms. These three brands dominate the total pipeline and combined claim 19 percent of the projects. These brands also had the highest number of new openings in 2019. Hilton’s Home2 Suites opened 90 new hotels, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express opened 85, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn opened 64.
Other notable brands in Hilton’s pipeline are Hampton by Hilton with 308 projects/31,373 rooms and Tru by Hilton with 300 projects/29,065 rooms. In the Marriott pipeline, TownePlace Suites has 218 projects/22,075 rooms and Residence Inn has 214 projects/26,199 rooms. In IHG’s pipeline, avid hotels has 189 projects/17,157 rooms and Staybridge Suites has 150 projects/15,728 rooms.
In 2019, 1,017 new hotels/118,674 rooms opened, a 7 percent increase from 2018’s 954 new hotels/112,329 rooms. Of the 1,017 new hotels that opened, 28 percent are Marriott branded, 27 percent are Hilton branded, and 16 percent are IHG branded.
The LE forecast for new hotel openings in 2020 anticipates that Marriott will open 286 projects/36,767 rooms. Next is Hilton with 284 projects/30,499 rooms followed by InterContinental Hotels Group with 179 projects/17,667 rooms forecast to open by year-end.
