Marriott International, Hilton and IHG Hotels & Resorts dominate the hotel construction pipeline in the U.S. in Q1 2023, according to the recently released U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE).
With 1,499 projects/181,377 rooms, Marriott topped the list with the largest number of projects in the construction pipeline, followed by Hilton with a record 1,436 projects/161,359 rooms and IHG with 809 projects/80,679 rooms.
Together, these three hotel groups constituted 68% of the projects in the U.S. pipeline.
Marriott also has the highest number of projects and room counts in each stage of the pipeline, with 279 projects/38,156 rooms currently under construction; 763 projects/90,038 rooms expected to start construction in the next 12 months; and 457 projects/53,183 rooms in early planning.
In terms of project count, the three companies with the biggest pipelines were Home2 Suites by Hilton, with all-time highs by projects and rooms of 546 projects/56,001 rooms; Marriott’s TownePlace Suites, also achieving all-time highs by projects and rooms with 333 projects/31,068 rooms; and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 301 projects/28,371 rooms.
Collectively, these three brands accounted for 21% of the projects in the U.S. construction pipeline.
Q1 saw record conversion pipeline totals of 1,079 projects/110.084 rooms. Among these conversions, Hilton had the highest number of conversion projects and room totals ever recorded by LE, with 105 projects/14,456 rooms. Marriott also had a record 100 conversion projects, totaling 13,465 rooms, and IHG had 52 conversions projects/6,2543 rooms. These three franchise companies represented 31% of all the rooms in the conversion pipeline across the country.
The franchise companies with the most number of new project announcements in Q1 were Hilton (110 projects/11,790 rooms), Marriott (61 projects/6,730 rooms) and IHG (33 projects/3,103 rooms). These three companies represented 60% of all new projects announced in Q1 in the U.S.
Marriott opened 33 new hotels, totaling 3,711 rooms. Hilton opened 24 new hotels, totaling 2,781 rooms, followed by IHG, which opened six new hotels totaling 629 rooms.
In terms of new hotel openings this year, LE estimated that Marriott will open 152 new hotel projects/19,064 rooms by the end of the year, while Hilton will open 141 new hotel projects/16,980 rooms. IHG is projected to open 88 new hotel projects/9,975 rooms. These two groups accounted for 64% and 65% of new hotel projects and rooms forecasted to open this year, respectively.