How many hotels are in the US: the counts by source, state and brand, and the free federal list of hotels

This page is for anyone who needs the number of hotels in the US, and for companies that sell to them: property management and guest technology, HVAC and energy, linen and laundry, furniture and renovation, food and beverage supply, staffing, security and cleaning. It sets out each count and why they differ, breaks hotels down by state, size and brand, shows where to download a list, and explains who buys.

How many hotels there are in the US

AHLA's state figures total 5,663,863 rooms, an average of about 88 rooms per property (our calculation). Of the 64,000 properties, AHLA counts more than 33,200 as small business properties.

Why the counts differ

• Census counts only places with payroll. County Business Patterns leaves out a motel run by its owners with no paid staff, and it puts casino hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, RV parks and camps in other industries.
• The FEMA list is opt-in. A property appears on the Master List only if it has applied and meets the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act's standards: a hard-wired smoke alarm in every guest room, and sprinklers in every guest room if the building has four or more stories. Most hotels that want government business are on it, but it isn't a census.
• AHLA counts properties, not payrolls. Its total covers lodging properties whether or not they have paid staff, so it runs higher than the Census hotel and motel count.
• One company, many counts. A hotel company's 10-K counts its brand system, mostly hotels it franchises to other owners, not hotels it owns.

Hotels by state

AHLA economic impact dashboard and FEMA Master List, both accessed 30 October 2026.

Florida and Illinois hotels are larger than average, with about 106 and 109 rooms per property, while Michigan's average about 74. The Census Bureau's 2023 hotel and motel establishment counts follow the same order at the top: California (6,020), Texas (5,643), Florida (3,546), New York (2,362) and Georgia (2,157).

Hotels by size

Census counts hotel and motel establishments by number of employees:

Most hotels are small operations: 68% have fewer than 20 employees (our calculation from the table). The 2,502 with 100 or more employees are the full-service, resort and convention hotels. Casino hotels run far larger: 114 of the 516 have 1,000 or more employees each. On FEMA's list, 35,381 properties have one to three stories and 22,432 have four or more.

Brands and owners

The largest hotel companies report their US systems in their annual filings:

All as of December 31, 2025. Marriott reports the US and Canada together.

These five systems cover roughly 28,800 properties, about 45% of AHLA's total (our calculation, which includes Marriott's Canadian hotels). The rest fly smaller brands or are independent. Brand companies mostly franchise: Hilton owns none of its US hotels, and Marriott owned or leased just 14 hotels in the US and Canada at year-end 2025.

How to download a list of hotels

The FEMA file is the best starting point: it's free, national and names nearly every hotel that wants government business. It lists properties, not owners, so the next step is finding who owns and operates each one.

Who buys inside a hotel

Three parties can sit behind one hotel: the brand (the flag on the sign), the owner (often an investment group or a family company) and a management company that runs it for the owner. As general guidance:

Brand procurement programs shape what hotels buy. IHG's 2025 annual report describes a new centralized procurement platform in the US that lets limited-service hotels consolidate purchasing, from operating supplies to maintenance. Getting onto a brand's approved list, or selling to a management company that runs dozens of hotels, can reach many properties at once.

Worked example: PTAC replacement in Tennessee

Illustrative example. The company and its rates are invented; the counts come from FEMA's Master List and AHLA, accessed 30 October 2026.

The seller: Volunteer Climate (volunteer-climate.example) replaces the packaged terminal air conditioners (PTACs) under guest room windows. The territory: Tennessee, with 1,710 hotel properties and 151,273 rooms on AHLA's figures.

1. Pull the list. Filter FEMA's Master List to Tennessee hotels and motels: 1,606 properties, 916 of them with one to three stories, the limited-service hotels that most often use PTACs. The biggest clusters are Nashville (239), Memphis (138), Chattanooga (117), Knoxville (116) and Pigeon Forge (67).
2. Find the owner. Match each property to its owner or management company through county property records and the brand's directory. Many owners hold several hotels, so the list of buyers is far shorter than the list of hotels.
3. Time the pitch. Renovations a brand requires after a sale or a change of brand (a property improvement plan) are a common time to replace PTACs, so watch for hotel sales and reflaggings.
4. Do the arithmetic. If an illustrative 10% of the 916 low-rise hotels replace PTACs in a year, that's about 92 projects. Winning 8 at an illustrative 90 rooms and $1,100 a unit gives about $790,000 in revenue.

Finding which company owns each hotel and who signs off on capital work is the slow part; Bebop finds the owners and contacts and researches each account in a list.

Next step: turn the property list into named buyers with our guide to building a prospect list.