PORTSMOUTH, NH—Analysts at Lodging Econometrics report that hotels in the upper midscale category have the largest project count of all chain scales in the total U.S. construction pipeline—2,060 projects with a total of 205,270 rooms. The second largest category is upscale hotels with 1,258 projects and a total of 162,609 rooms. Together, the upper midscale and upscale hotel construction projects comprise 67 percent of the total hotel construction pipeline in the U.S.
The brands with the largest number of projects in the upper midscale category are IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 426 projects/39,393 rooms, Hilton’s Home2 Suites with 343 projects/35,845 rooms, and Hampton Inn with 322 projects/33,109 rooms. In the upscale category, the top hotel brands are Marriott’s Residence Inn and SpringHill Suites with 187 projects/23,617 rooms and 149 projects/17,182 rooms, respectively, followed by Hilton’s Garden Inn with 134 projects/17,734 rooms.
These two chain scales are forecasted to have the highest guestroom growth rates through 2018. The upper midscale chain scale is forecasted to grow its guestroom count by 4.9 percent and the upscale category by 5.4 percent in 2017. In 2018, the expected guestroom growth is 5.3 percent for upper midscale and 5.6 percent for upscale.
