In the first quarter of 2019, three major hotel groups and their brands led the US hotel pipeline, comprising over two-thirds (68 percent) of the total projects under construction according to the Lodging Econometrics Q1 report for 2019.  Leading in the pipeline is Marriott International with 1,499 projects/196,771 rooms and Hilton Worldwide with 1,386 projects/154,349 rooms, both at all-time record highs. InterContinental Hotels Group follows with 980 projects/99,115 rooms.

The leading brands in the construction pipeline by project count for each of these three companies are IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 416 projects, Home2 Suites by Hilton with 415 projects, and Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 305 projects. These three brands together represent 20 percent of the projects in the entire pipeline.

Other notable brands in the pipeline for each of these franchise companies are Hilton’s Tru and Hampton properties, Marriott’s Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites, and IHG’s Avid Hotel and Staybridge Suites. In the first quarter of 2019, Marriott opened 70 new hotels, Hilton opened 58 hotels and IHG opened 36 hotels. The LE 2019 forecast for new hotel openings predicts Marriott will open a total of 278 projects, Hilton will debuts 266 projects and InterContinental Hotels Group will add 156 projects.