PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — In its quarterly U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report, Lodging Econometrics (LE) recently reported the franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines at the end of the third quarter of 2020. Marriott International led with 1,390 projects/184,450 rooms, followed by Hilton Worldwide with 1,351 projects/155,626 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 873 projects/89,375 rooms. Combined, these three companies account for 68 percent of the projects and 66 percent of the rooms in the country’s total pipeline—roughly the same share quarter-over-quarter throughout 2020.
Hilton’s Home2 Suites and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express have the largest U.S. pipelines with 402 projects/42,036 rooms and 348 projects/33,351 rooms, respectively. Hampton by Hilton follows with 291 projects/30,140 rooms, then Tru by Hilton with 280 projects/26,991, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 277 projects/27,005 rooms.
Other notable brands in the pipeline for each of these franchise companies are Marriott’s Residence Inn with 198 projects/24,549 rooms, SpringHill Suites with 172 projects/19,594 rooms, and TownePlace Suites with 195 projects/19,616 rooms, and then IHG’s avid Hotel with 185 projects/16,583 rooms.
Through the third quarter of 2020, 599 new hotels with 68,712 rooms opened across the United States. Marriott-, Hilton-, and IHG-branded hotels collectively accounted for 72 percent of those openings: 173 of the hotels were Marriott brands, 170 were Hilton brands, and another 86 were IHG brands. LE is expecting these top franchise companies to open another 202 hotels by the end of 2020.
For 2021, these leading franchise companies are forecast to open 655 new hotels adding 77,101 rooms to the census of open and operating hotels in the United States.
