Mark Skinner of the Highland Group has written an informative article about the continued success of the U.S. Extended-Stay segment of our industry. You can read it HERE.
What I find fascinating about the article is that the extended-stay segment is claiming essentially all of the RevPAR growth in the U.S. at the moment. How could that possibly be? The answer, in my opinion, is Home2 Suites by Hilton.
Nearly 100 new Home2’s will open in 2017. In other markets where a Home2 is already in the works, some developers are opting to build TownePlace Suites by Marriott instead, so those markets will see two new extended-stay products opening.
Now, TownePlace has been around for a while and it’s a good brand, but Home2 has redefined and re-energized the upper-midscale extended-stay market. There will be as many Home2’s as TownePlace’s around within a year or two, and Home2 has only been around half as long as its Marriott counterpart.
This rapidly expanding segment if giving travelers new, popular choices they never had before. Is it any wonder that extended-stay is hogging the revenue growth in the U.S. hotel market?
My prediction is that we will see renewed market share growth in the mid-scale segment over the next two years, which will be primarily attributable to Hilton’s new Tru brand. This upstart brand is slated to zoom from zero to 250 hotels open in just over 1.5 years, making it the fastest-growing hotel brand in the history of the U.S. industry. Watch for it.
Dave Hogg
PS. Full disclosure: Springwood uses the Highland Group for nearly all of its new hotel feasibility studies, because they seem to get it right.
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