My Place relaunches Trend with an introductory royalty for franchises executed before Dec. 31
My Place Hotels of America relaunched Trend by My Place as a three-tier conversion brand for independent and reflagging hotels. Its pitch is lower capital demands backed by My Place's reservations, loyalty and support platform, as U.S. conversions run 15% ahead of last year. Owners have until Dec. 31 to sign under an introductory royalty.
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Key facts, context, and what it means.
Key takeaways
With U.S. hotel conversions up 15% year over year, My Place is pitching Trend to owners who want a franchise path without heavy capital requirements.
Trend by My Place has been relaunched as a three-tier platform aimed at independent owners and properties ready to change flags. The relaunch coverage does not name the tiers or specify whether the 2020 admission standard—limited to high-quality, well-operated properties opened in 2005 or later—still applies to any tier, including one intended for regional inns or destination lodges.
The question for owners before the Dec. 31 introductory royalty cutoff: does the 2020 rule admitting only properties opened in 2005 or later still apply to each new tier?
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U.S. hotel conversions are up 15% year over year, according to Lodging Econometrics data reported by Hotel Business and Hotel Management. My Place Hotels of America is answering that market with Trend by My Place, relaunched as a three-tier platform for independent owners and properties ready to change flags. The promise: a way into a national franchise system without heavy capital requirements.
The same Lodging Econometrics source, the Q2 2026 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report, also shows construction starts up 14%.
Hotel Management said the numbers reflect a market in transition. Owners of mature properties are balancing expensive PIP demands from legacy brands against tighter operating margins, and they want a new franchise relationship built on a different approach. Independent operators, meanwhile, see the value in national distribution, loyalty programs and business intelligence tools, which they can now get without giving up operational control.
Trend is aimed at both. Ryan Rivett, president and CEO of My Place and parent company The Rivett Organization, said in the company's announcement that the brand was built for owners who have spent years growing a property and don't want a franchisor treating it as a template.
Brian Quinn, the organization's chief development officer, put it plainly at the opening general session. My Place would not load franchisees with undue expense, he told owners. It would take a measured approach instead and put owner spending into what guests notice: the experience, the service, the human touch.
Three flags, three kinds of hotel
The platform behind the flag
Trend franchisees plug into the same commercial platform that runs the My Place brand, according to the company: central reservations, national sales, business revenue intelligence, training and quality assurance, and systems and technology, all under common standards administration. Franchisees also join Stay Rewarded, the My Place loyalty program.
Stay Rewarded, by the company's numbers
My Place Hotels of America, via Hotel Business and Hotel Management
Those are company figures, so the right benchmark is the owner's own channel mix. For a property that fills rooms mostly through online travel agencies, a loyalty base that mostly books direct could matter as much for distribution cost as it does for occupancy.
The Rivett Organization develops, builds, owns, operates and franchises hotels. Hotel Management reported that a Trend franchisee who builds through Legacy Builders works with a construction team reporting to the same leadership that runs hotel operations.
Rivett told Hotel Management those divisions have existed for most of the company's 50-year history, and that My Place was deliberately given its own identity first. With the brand established, he said, the company is ready to fully integrate its businesses. For owners who would build through the company, that suggests a single leadership chain running from construction to operations.
A royalty clock that ends Dec. 31
Hotel Business and Hotel Management report that Trend by My Place franchises executed before Dec. 31 qualify for an introductory royalty structure. This is not the first signing incentive My Place has designed, and its 2020 version delivered the savings up front.
When Trend first launched in 2020, My Place set a 5% royalty on gross room revenue and gave early signers a ramp: 0% for the first 30 days, 2.5% for days 31 to 90, 4% for days 91 to 180, then 5% for the rest of the term.
The 2020 release also promised training tailored for teams in transition to the brand. Owners comparing offers could ask My Place's development team how the 2026 introductory structure is set up. For operators whose current franchise agreement or improvement-plan deadline is approaching, the Dec. 31 cutoff could decide whether they sign on introductory terms or at the standard rate.
Flexibility and the consistency question
One possible objection to a flag that promises not to force a template could come from Rivett's own description of his core brand. He told Hotel Management that My Place has been highly programmatic and consistent, and that Trend's hotels and owners, with their different objectives, will make the network stronger.
Both can be true, but they pull in different directions. A brand that avoids imposing a template suggests more of its quality has to come from who it admits and how it trains and inspects them. The one hard admission standard on record dates to the 2020 launch, which limited Trend to high-quality, well-operated properties opened in 2005 or later, and the relaunch coverage does not say whether that floor carries into a tier built for regional inns and destination lodges.
Before signing, ask which admission standards apply to your tier today, whether the 2005 opening-year floor from 2020 still stands, and how Trend's quality assurance program scores a property after conversion.
A clearer picture could come after the Dec. 31 cutoff. Signings My Place announces under the introductory royalty, and how they split across the three tiers, could show whether the lighter capital ask is drawing independent inns, mature branded hotels leaving legacy flags, or both.
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