It doesn’ t mean it’ s been easy.“ We set budgets last October before we knew who the president would be,” said David Pepper, chief development officer for Choice Hotels International, and believing that inflation would tamper

down.‘ We are still seeing delays in that,” which, he added, has been exacerbated by tariffs. On the bright side, he said that interest rate reductions would give the hotel industry a needed shot in the arm. So far this year, the Federal Reserve has issued one rate cut with two more predicted, many believe. Still,“ we are now used to it,” Pepper said, noting that construction costs have come down some, too.

In August, Highside Companies, a development group focused on extendedstay development, secured a

$ 500-million financing package from Apollo to fuel the growth of Everhome Suites, a midscale extended-stay brand of Choice Hotels. Pepper said that Choice is building 20 Everhomes on its own.

Some of that sanguine outlook is shared by Dan Hansen, head of Americas development for Hyatt Hotels Corp.“ We started the year with great optimism and there is momentum now,” he said, despite challenges like tariff policy. Hansen, like his peers, said that right now is a great time to build new since supply

has been muted for multiple quarters now. Capital to build, both equity and debt, is available, though the latter comes at a still higher cost due to elevated interest rates. Over half of Hyatt’ s new signings are in markets where there previously wasn’ t a Hyatt brand, Hansen said.

Amit Sripathi, EVP & CDO for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, recognized some of the challenges put forth by the new administration’ s policies, but noted optimism and the resiliency of the hospitality industry, which survived

76 hotelsmag. com November 2025