Marriott, Hilton, and IHG Continue to Dominate the U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline
In the recently released United States Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), analysts detailed the leading franchise companies and their brands in the construction pipeline at the close of the first quarter. Marriott International (Marriott) tops the charts with the greatest number of projects in the U.S. hotel construction pipeline, at Q1 2023, with 1,499 projects/181,377 rooms, followed closely by Hilton Worldwide (Hilton), with a record-high count of 1,436 projects/161,359 rooms, and then InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 809 projects/80,679 rooms. Combined, these three franchise companies comprise 68% of the projects in the total U.S. pipeline.Marriott also has the most projects and room counts in each stage of the pipeline at Q1, with 279 projects/38,156 rooms currently under construction, 763 projects/90,038 rooms scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, and 457 projects/53,183 rooms in early planning.The leading brands by project count for the three companies with the largest pipelines in the U.S. at Q1 are Home2 Suites by Hilton with all-time highs by projects and rooms of 546 projects/56,001 rooms, Marriott’s TownePlace Suites, also reaching all-time highs by projects and rooms at Q1, with 333 projects/31,068 rooms, and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express brand with 301 projects/28,371 rooms. These three brands collectively represent 21% of the projects in the total U.S. hotel construction pipeline at the close of Q1 2023.LE recorded record-high conversion pipeline totals of 1,079 projects/110,084 rooms for the U.S. in the first quarter of 2023. Of these conversion totals, Hilton had the most conversion projects and room totals ever recorded by LE with 105 projects/14,456 rooms, similarly, Marriott had a record 100 conversion projects, accounting for 13,465 rooms, and IHG had 52 conversion projects/6,2543 rooms. These three franchise companies account for 31% of all the rooms in the conversion pipeline across the country.The franchise companies with the greatest number of new project announcements in the first quarter were: Hilton with 110 projects/11,790 rooms, Marriott with 61 projects/6,730 rooms, and IHG with 33 projects/3,103 rooms. These companies represent 60% of all new projects announced in the U.S. in Q1 2023.In Q1 2023, Marriott opened 33 new hotels with 3,711 rooms. Hilton opened 24 new hotels with 2,781 rooms, and IHG opened 6 new hotels with 629 rooms. The LE forecast for new hotel openings in 2023 anticipates that Marriott will open a total of 152 new hotel projects/19,064 rooms by year-end, Hilton is forecasted to open 141 new hotel projects/16,980 rooms in 2023, and IHG is expected to open 88 new hotel projects/9,975 rooms. These three franchise companies collectively account for 64% and 65%, respectively, of new hotel projects and rooms forecast to open in 2023.