Hyatt expects 10 hotel openings in Canada in 2027, its largest year there

Hyatt Hotels Corporation expects 10 hotels to open in Canada in 2027. According to the company, that would make 2027 its biggest year ever for new hotel openings in Canada. Hyatt said its Canadian pipeline holds more than 40 deals, including those 10 hotels, and that its portfolio of open hotels in Canada has quadrupled since 2017.

Julienne Smith, Hyatt's head of Americas growth, described the record in terms of owners. In the October 28 release, she credited the growth to Hyatt's strong relationships with owners and developers, its wide range of brands and its flexible development models. Scott Richer, Hyatt's head of growth for Canada, said the focus heading into 2027 is "deepening relationships with owners and creating opportunities to grow together."

The more useful detail for owners is the brand mix. Several of the new names are not full-service flags in downtown Toronto. Hyatt Select, a conversion brand designed for secondary and tertiary markets, makes its Canadian debut with Hyatt Select Kingston in Ontario, expected to open later this year.

That mix is the real story. Canada adds new hotel rooms slowly, so the question for a brand chasing a record is how many of its openings depend on new construction and how many come from other routes into the system.

Ten openings in a 39-hotel year

Lodging Econometrics' third-quarter 2026 Canada report, published by Hotel Management on October 28, gives the national baseline. The firm forecasts 39 new hotels with 4,463 rooms opening in Canada in 2027, a 1.2% increase in room supply. It expects 36 new hotels by the end of this year, for 1.1% supply growth, and 48 in 2028, for 1.4%.

Most of this year's total is already open. Canada added 23 new hotels with 2,526 rooms through the first three quarters, and the firm forecasts 13 more with 1,439 rooms in the fourth quarter, for 3,965 rooms in 2026. The 2028 class of 48 hotels is expected to carry 5,180 rooms.

Comparing Hyatt's 10 with the national 39 is our own arithmetic, and it comes to roughly a quarter. That comparison is rough on purpose. Hyatt's tally can include conversions such as Hyatt Select properties. Lodging Econometrics tracks conversions separately, in a combined renovation and conversion pipeline of 104 hotels with 14,717 rooms. The two numbers don't measure the same thing. Even after allowing for conversions in Hyatt's count, though, 10 would be a striking slice of the country's openings.

The slow supply growth is the context for everything else in Hyatt's slate. If new construction adds between 1.1% and 1.4% to the room base each year, most of the hotel rooms operating in Canada in 2028 already exist today.

That is the arithmetic behind a conversion brand. An owner who reflags an existing hotel puts a new flag on the map without waiting on the construction cycle. The renovation and conversion pipeline's 14,717 rooms equal roughly 30% of the rooms in the new-construction pipeline, by our calculation. That pool mixes renovations with conversions, but it suggests a meaningful stock of existing hotels already in play.

Where Canada's pipeline is building

Canada's total hotel construction pipeline reached a record 355 hotels with 49,209 rooms at the end of the third quarter, Lodging Econometrics found. That's up 7% by projects and 10% by rooms year over year.

Most of that pipeline is still a long way from opening. Early-planning projects hit a record 26,332 rooms, up 18% by rooms, and account for 54% of the pipeline's rooms. Another 103 hotels with 13,620 rooms are scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months. Third-quarter starts covered 1,542 rooms, up 78% by rooms, and Canada logged 19 new-project announcements with 2,335 rooms in the quarter.

Chain scale is where Hyatt's newest brands meet the competition head-on. Hyatt Select and Hyatt Studios are both upper-midscale brands, and upper midscale leads Canada's pipeline with a record 142 hotels and 14,397 rooms. That's 40% of projects and 29% of rooms, up 11% by projects and 5% by rooms. Upscale follows with 62 hotels and 8,570 rooms, and midscale reached a record 44 hotels with 3,807 rooms.

Projects in the segment grew faster than rooms, and its share of projects far outruns its share of rooms. By our arithmetic, the average upper-midscale project carries about 101 rooms, against about 139 across the whole pipeline. That fits the smaller-market, smaller-box profile Hyatt describes for Select. It also means Hyatt is entering the most crowded lane in the country.

Ontario leads the provinces with 190 hotels and 27,852 rooms, or 54% of projects and 57% of rooms. Quebec holds 31 hotels with 3,545 rooms, up 20% by rooms. Together with British Columbia, the three provinces account for 86% of Canada's pipeline projects.

British Columbia's pipeline hit a record 83 hotels, up 28% by rooms. Vancouver alone holds 45 hotels with 8,562 rooms, up 44% by rooms. Niagara Falls has 24 projects in the pipeline and a record 6,865 rooms, up 31% by rooms.

Hyatt has already planted flags in those hot spots. The four recent Canadian openings it lists in the release are:

• Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario: The Clayfield, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
• Burnaby, British Columbia: Hyatt Place Vancouver / Metrotown
• Niagara Falls, Ontario: Hyatt Regency Niagara Falls Fallsview
• Thunder Bay, Ontario: Hyatt House Thunder Bay

For a development executive at a competing brand, this means Hyatt is chasing the same Vancouver and Niagara deals as everyone else. It is also working the secondary-market end of the map, where Ontario's pipeline of 190 hotels is mostly not in Toronto. Toronto holds 71 of them, which leaves 119 elsewhere in the province, places like Kingston and Thunder Bay.

Prince Albert sits further out still. Saskatchewan falls outside the three provinces that hold most of the pipeline, so the Hyatt Studios debut points to a market where a dual-brand project faces less pipeline competition.

Select and Studios cross the border

Hyatt Select Kingston is expected to open later this year and will be the brand's first hotel in Canada. Saskatchewan is set to get a dual-branded development in 2027, with Hyatt Select Prince Albert opening alongside Hyatt Studios Prince Albert, which will bring the Hyatt Studios brand to Canada. Hyatt says Studios is purpose-built for long stays and offers apartment-style suites with kitchens. Both brands give owners access to Hyatt's commercial platform and the World of Hyatt loyalty program.

Both brands come to Canada with a US track record. Hotel Business reported Hyatt's full-year 2025 results: US signings rose about 30% over 2024, including more than 25 Hyatt Select deals, and the Hyatt Studios pipeline grew to about 70 properties after the brand was announced in 2023. Hyatt's global pipeline of executed management and franchise contracts reached about 148,000 rooms, up 7%.

The same results show the other side of select service. Hyatt opened 8,253 rooms in the fourth quarter of 2025, including Hyatt Studios Huntsville. But franchise and other fees fell 3.8% in that quarter, which the company attributed partly to lower demand at select-service properties in the US, along with the loss of franchise fees from hotels in the Playa acquisition. Signings measure owner appetite. Fees measure what those hotels earn, and the two don't always move together.

Cost is where these brands win or lose an owner. Smith took up that point at the Lodging Conference in Phoenix, according to Hotel Dive's October 8 coverage, where panelists talked through rising labor, operating, construction and insurance costs. Sloan Dean, founder and CEO of AI Hospitality Group, said on a panel there that US hotel net operating margins are down 20% since 2019.

Smith said Hyatt looks at what its prototypes cost to build, along with other places it can cut costs and improve efficiency while staying true to the brand. The company recently updated its Hyatt Place and Hyatt Studios prototypes with versions that need fewer rooms and less space and cost less overall. For a Studios owner, a smaller box would matter most in a market like Prince Albert, where a 100-plus-room hotel may be more than demand supports.

Whether the dual-brand format repeats in Canada will depend on how the first project performs, and it is expected to open in 2027.

Park Hyatt and Haida Gwaii at the other end

The slate isn't all upper midscale. Park Hyatt Vancouver will give the luxury brand a West Coast hotel to match Park Hyatt Toronto, putting the brand in two of what Hyatt calls Canada's most important gateway cities. It will be Canada's second Park Hyatt, and Hyatt calls it a significant expansion of its luxury portfolio in the country. It also lands in the pipeline's fastest-growing big city, where rooms in development are up 44%.

The most unusual deal is the Canadian debut of Unscripted by Hyatt. It comes through a partnership with Haida Enterprise Corporation, which serves as the Haida Nation's economic development arm. Two properties will join: Ocean House at Tlaga Gawtlaas (Old Massett) and Haida House at Tllaal (Tlell). Both sit on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.

Unscripted allows independent hotels to join Hyatt's network without giving up their own identity. In the release, Leticia Hill, CEO of Haida Enterprise Corporation, said the arrangement puts the properties in front of a wider audience while they remain Haida-owned and keep their identity and ties to Haida Gwaii. She described Haida House and Ocean House as properties that are distinctly Haida Gwaii and said that character will stay central to who they are.

Taken together, the slate covers four different ways into Hyatt's system: a conversion in Kingston, a dual-brand development in Prince Albert, a luxury hotel in Vancouver and a collection deal in Haida Gwaii. That range is what Smith meant by "the flexibility of our development models," and it suggests the 2027 record doesn't depend on one type of deal.

For independent owners in remote markets, this model is the one to watch. The Haida Gwaii properties sit well outside Toronto, Vancouver and Niagara Falls, the three cities that hold 55% of Canada's pipeline rooms. They join Hyatt's network without new construction or a new name.