In the second quarter of 2021, analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) report that the top franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines are Marriott International with 1,301 projects/170,847 rooms, Hilton with 1,216 projects/139,172 rooms and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 777 projects/78,929 rooms. Development projects with these three franchise companies comprise 69% of all projects in the total construction pipeline.
The largest brands for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 257 projects/25,051 rooms, Hilton’s Home2 Suites by Hilton with 379 projects/39,584 rooms and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 303 projects/29,055 rooms. These three brands make up 20% of the total construction pipeline rooms in the U.S.
Other high-volume brands in the pipeline for each of these franchises are Marriott’s TownePlace Suites with 198 projects/19,422 rooms and Residence Inn with 189 projects/23,493 rooms; Hilton’s Hampton by Hilton with 269 projects/28,071 rooms and Tru by Hilton with 235 projects/22,521 rooms; and IHG’s Avid Hotel with 157 projects/13,842 rooms and Staybridge Suites with 122 projects/12,607 rooms.
In the second quarter of 2021, LE recorded 583 conversion projects/63,807 rooms. Of these conversion totals, Best Western leads with 116 conversion projects/10,289 rooms, accounting for 20% of the conversion pipeline by projects. Following Best Western is Choice Hotels, Marriott International and Hilton. Best Western and these three franchise companies combined account for 61% of all the rooms in the conversion pipeline across the U.S.
A total of 472 new hotels with 59,034 rooms opened across the U.S. during the first half of 2021. Marriott, Hilton and IHG collectively opened 74% of the hotels. Marriott opened 152 hotels with 20,416 rooms, Hilton opened 125 hotels/16,970 rooms and IHG opened 72 hotels/7,249 rooms.