Changes in development and financing over the next five years will be dependent on market-specific conditions, but from a global perspective, there could be more branded hotels than independent hotels in many parts of the world.
Looking at the U.S. hotel industry as it is currently, almost 80% of the rooms in the pipeline are under six parent companies, said Jan Freitag, SVP of lodging insights at STR. The brand trend is going to continue, and is happening globally, he said.
“Globally, it’s not six brands that have 80%, but if you look at the ratio of independent versus branded properties, what’s in the pipeline, I would expect that to continue to evolve toward more branded properties.”
Soft-branded properties are factored into that expectation of seeing more brands by 2025, he said. In the developing world, or regions such as the U.S., Europe and some parts of Asia, “we’re going to see more soft-brand play where you have the front of house that looks independent but the back of house is hooked into one of the top 10 companies,” he said.
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