At the end of 2016, Marriott International had the largest pipeline in the United States of any franchise company, according to analysts at Lodging Econometrics. The company had 1,301 projects with 167,641 rooms in the pipeline by year-end 2016.
Since its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Marriott has added 10 full-service brands, boosting its U.S. portfolio to 25 brands and increasing its total pipeline room count by 35 percent. Its largest brand in the pipeline is Fairfield Inn, which has 297 projects with 28,284 rooms.
Of the total pipeline, Marriott has the most projects of any franchise company under construction with 471 projects and 65,924 rooms, representing more than 30 percent of all projects under construction in the U.S. Additionally, the company has the most projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months with 705 projects and 85,902 rooms. Marriott also has 125 projects with 167,641 rooms in early planning.
In the fourth quarter, Marriott had 86 projects start construction and announced 197 new projects. Both are the highest of any franchise company. For new hotel openings, both Marriott and Hilton opened 79 new hotels each, also at a high.