Lodging Econometrics

Lodging Econometrics is a Portsmouth, New Hampshire research firm that tracks the global hotel construction and development pipeline. Its quarterly reports count projects by stage, chain scale and market, and they function as the industry’s reference point for whether hotel construction is expanding or contracting. Developers, lenders, franchisors and contractors use the data to size demand and time entries into specific markets. The firm’s Q2 2026 report showed the total U.S. hotel construction pipeline down nearly 5% year over year, with luxury and upper upscale segments posting gains against that trend, a split that reflects which capital stacks can still close construction financing.

Patrick H. Ford, who founded the firm and died in 2021, came to data from operations. He spent 20 years at the Dunfey Hotel Company, the predecessor to the Omni Hotel Group, including a stretch as vice president and director of operations for 26 properties, and he is credited with being the first hotel executive to install a formal budgeting process, a practice the rest of the industry adopted afterward. He held CCIM and Certified Hotel Broker designations and belonged to the International Society of Hospitality Consultants.

The business remains in the family. Tim Ford, who has been with LE since its formation and previously served as executive vice president, is now president. JP Ford and Bruce Ford both hold senior vice president and director of global business development titles, Bruce having worked with the client base since 1995. LE was named 2017 Family Business of the Year by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Family Enterprise.

The product is a subscription database rather than a report subscription. The Database of Hotel and Contact Records tracks new construction, announced renovations, brand conversions, sales transactions and open-and-operating hotels, each record carrying contact details for developers, owners, management companies and project team members. It updates weekly. A companion Strategy and Forecast Center holds the trend reporting, broken out by sales territory, region, country, market, franchise company, brand and chain scale. Clients can run the database as a standalone CRM or integrate the feed into Salesforce, and there are iOS and Android apps plus Google-powered mapping for territory work. A Client Concierge Services team handles orientation and training. Individual pipeline, market and transaction reports are also sold outright through the site’s store.

LE’s people sit on the committees that judge the industry. JP Ford chairs the America’s Lodging Investment Summit Hotel Development of the Year committee and serves on the equivalent panel for the Caribbean Hotel and Resort Investment Summit. Bruce Ford sits on the Allied Member Executive Committee of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and speaks at the International Hotel Investment Forum, the NYU investment conference and Boutique Design New York.