Inland Empire set to open 12 hotels this year, with 54 more in early planning

Lodging Econometrics: The Inland Empire is forecast to open 12 new hotels with 1,024 rooms in 2026, tying Austin for fifth most among the top 50 U.S. markets, behind Phoenix, New York, and Dallas. The firm's 2027 forecast has the IE opening 16 more hotels with 1,410 rooms, tied with Indianapolis behind Dallas, Atlanta, and Phoenix.

The deeper pipeline is larger still. At the close of the first quarter, the IE held 54 projects with 5,266 rooms in early planning — fourth nationally, behind only Dallas, Atlanta, and Nashville, and ahead of Phoenix. The region also recorded four new project announcements during the quarter, putting it among the most active markets for new starts.

Look at the company the region keeps on these lists: Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville, Austin — Sun Belt growth markets, all of them. The IE is the lone California entry anywhere in the top tier, a measure of how differently developers treat the corridor from the rest of the state.