Best Western

Properties recently joining the membership organization include the Best Western Teal Lake Inn in Mexico, MO and the Best Western Harbour Inn and Suites in Sunset Beach, CA. The Teal Lake Inn features 48 rooms, including 24 suites. The Harbour Inn and Suites, a boutique-style hotel, has 27 rooms, including 10 suites.

Global Hyatt

The 12-story Hyatt Regency Toronto Airport being developed by Merchant Equity Group is scheduled to open in the summer of 2010. Zeidler Partnership will design the 500-room hotel, part of a 15-acre mixed-use complex, to LEED silver standards.

The 342-room Hyatt Regency North Dallas/Richardson is scheduled to open this month after a renovation by new owner Noble Investment Group.

The 100th Hyatt Place opened in late December in Memphis. The 126-unit property is near the Wolfchase Galleria shopping mall.

Hilton Hotels

Embassy Suites Hotels opened a 147-suite high-rise hotel in Tampa-Brandon (FL) owned by Whiteco Industries and operated by White Lodging. The Embassy Suites Detroit-Metro Airport became the brand's first opening this year.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in November for the 210-room Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Minneapolis & Convention Center. The 119-room Hilton Garden Inn Idaho Falls (ID) opened in December.

Marriott International

Concord Hospitality Enterprises launched an $11.1-million renovation of the Hamiltonian Hotel in Hamilton, OH. It is scheduled to reopen as a Courtyard by Marriott late this year.

Hotel Equities will manage a new SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Lake Charles, LA that is scheduled to open late this year. Hotel Equities also broke ground on its 20th hotel, a Courtyard by Marriott near the Mall of Georgia in the Atlanta area.

The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester opened in December in White Plains, NY, featuring 118 rooms and a premier spa.

Red Roof Inn

A recently converted 82-rooom property in Buttonwillow, CA opened as a Red Roof Inn. The hotel includes an outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts

W Hotels will debut in Minneapolis in the legendary Foshay Tower. The 229-room W Minneapolis-The Foshay is scheduled to open late this year.

The new lifestyle brand aloft will open two hotels, aloft Metropolis and aloft Venu, in the Indianapolis area at the end of 2009.

The Washington D.C. metropolitan area will get two extended-stay ELEMENT hotels, one at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in 2009 and another at the Dulles Parkway Center in Dulles, VA in February 2010.

US Franchise Systems

A 57-room Microtel Inn & Suites opened in Morgantown, WV, becoming the state's fifth Microtel hotel to open in the past 15 months. Two Microtel Inn & Suites broke ground recently, a 90-room hotel in Greenville, NC and a 73-room hotel in Johnstown, NY.

Microtel Inn & Suites will develop seven new hotels in Canada. Two will be in Ontario in London and Woodstock. The other five will be in Atlantic Canada, in St. John and Moncton, New Brunswick and Halifax, Dartmouth and Sydney, Nova Scotia. The Ontario hotels are scheduled to break ground in March and open next fall and the rest will break ground later this year.

Vantage Hospitality

The Lexington Collection added the Lexington Hotel Charlotte (NC). The former Sheraton Hotel will undergo a $3-million renovation before reopening.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

The five-star, 301-room Veneto Hotel & Casino in Panama City will become Wyndham's first flag in Panama as a Wyndham Grand Hotel. The multimillion-dollar renovation has begun and will include remodeling its guest rooms and suites, restaurants and casino.

Howard Johnson Canada reopened a 142-room property in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Renovations have already begun after the purchase by Global Properties International and the rooms will be opening in three stages.

over the next 18 months.