Extended Stay Brand: Why Every Hotel Company Wants One

25.08.2023 - 13:37 / skift.com / Anthony Capuano / Sean Oneill / Chris Nassetta

Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt have previewed new extended-stay hotel brands in the past month. The U.S-based hotel groups are wagering that a few factors will power extended-stay hotels for years to come, including U.S. federal infrastructure investment, the resilience of blended travel, and a housing crisis.

Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano said in an early May earnings call that his company was “a few weeks away from announcing a simple, modern, streamlined new-build, extended-stay product.” The new brand, Marriott’s 32nd, would target guests “looking for longer stays at a mid-scale price point,” he said. In November, Marriott International separately said it would debut an extended stay brand in the U.S. and Canada called Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy in a premium-priced segment. 

Hilton Worldwide CEO Chris Nassetta teased the previous week that the operator would debut an extended-stay brand within a few months. “It’s like an apartment efficiency meets hotel,” Nassetta said. The premium-economy brand would be all new construction rather than conversions, he said.

Hyatt Hotels unveiled on April 18 a new brand, Hyatt Studios, as its entry into upper-midscale extended stay lodging in North America. The first of these properties are likely to open in 2024.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts late last year rolled out its 24th brand, Echo Suites Extended Stay by Wyndham. The world’s largest hotel franchisor has already signed up developers to build 120 of them, and Echo Suites is the fastest-growing brand in its U.S. development pipeline.

Airbnb continues to see roughly 20 to 24 percent of its bookings for lodging for stays of 28 days or more, up from 14 percent in 2019. On Wednesday, the online travel agency added a “months” tab to look for hosts accommodating longer-term guests.

Extended Stay America, the segment’s best-known brand in the U.S., was bought for $6 billion by Blackstone and Starwood Capital in 2021. Those investors bought 111 WoodSpring Suites hotels for $1.5 billion last year, and Extended Stay America is rebranding those properties now as part of its new multi-brand growth strategy, which focuses on economy and midscale segments.

Even Best Western’s parent company BWH Hotel Group is getting into the act. It launched an extended stay brand late last year.

And while Choice Hotels hasn’t launched a new brand, its WoodSpring Suites brand accounted for approximately 94 percent of the economy extended stay rooms under construction at the end of 2022. Choice Hotels was last year able to boost domestic extended stay franchise agreements in 2022 by a record 77 percent, year-over-year. 

So what’s driving the wide interest in extended stay — a category we’re defining as hotels whose rooms have