The U.S. construction pipeline is now in its ninth consecutive year of growth and should continue to remain strong through 2020 and the early part of the new decade.

This lodging development cycle for the hotel industry has resulted in the announcement of 102 new brands since 2015, some new builds, others conversion brands. Twenty-six of these brands are established international brands that have announced U.S. growth plans. Many of the other brands are a result of the major franchise companies expanding their development offerings to meet the desire of travelers for a more "unique" place to stay, while remaining competitive in the ever-changing travel market. In fact, of the 102 newly announced brands, 32% are boutique, collection, extended-stay, lifestyle or soft brands.

The chain scale with the fastest rate of growth for newly announced brands is the midscale chain scale. With 510 projects/48,732 rooms, newly announced brands in the midscale chain scale account for 54% of the chain scale's total development (new construction and conversion) pipeline projects in the U.S. The economy chain scale has the greatest number of rooms from newly announced brands in the development pipeline with 97,865 rooms. The luxury, upper-upscale, upscale and upper-midscale, respectively together, comprise 307 projects/43,131 rooms of the total U.S. development pipeline.

The three largest hotel franchise companies in the U.S., Marriott International, Hilton and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) have launched a combined nine new brands since 2015. Other companies such as Best Western Hotel & Resorts top the new brand announcement list with 10 new brands, Accor has nine and Hyatt Hotels has introduced seven.

Newly announced brand growth is expected to continue well into this decade as these brands begin to gain traction and development begins or continues.

Source: Lodging EconometricsSource: Lodging Econometrics
Source: Lodging Econometrics

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For over 25 years, Lodging Econometrics (LE) has been the industry-leading provider of global hotel intelligence and decision-maker contact information. LE custom-builds business development database programs for hotel franchise companies looking to accelerate their brand growth, hotel ownership and management companies seeking to expand their real estate portfolios, and lodging industry vendors wanting to increase their sales. To learn more about our business development programs contact us: +1 603.431.8740, ext 0025 or [email protected].