The first brand-name hotel in Upper Darby has opened, adding another property to Delaware County’s already high-performing and fast-growing lodging market, writes Kenneth Hilario for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The Holiday Inn & Suites Philadelphia at Drexelbrook had a soft opening Friday, May 10, with a grand-opening May 30 at 2:30 p.m.

The 100-room hotel, adjacent to the Drexelbrook Catering and Special Event Center, was first announced in 2017. Its land development application was approved by Upper Darby Council in January that year.

The project cost about $16 million, according to Domenick Savino, CEO and general manager of Drexelbrook.

The hotel, owned by Drexelbrook Associates, LLC, was purchased as a franchise of Holiday Inn from the InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE:IHG).  The hotel is an H4 model, first introduced in 2017 in Washington. The name stands for happiness, hospitality, home and Holiday Inn.

In 2018, growth in the county’s market outperformed the region’s other four counties, which all saw increases in key hospitality performance metrics.

Delaware County had large growth in hotel demand, outpacing supply growth, meaning more people are visiting and staying in rooms while the number of hotels grows.

Demand has tapered slightly in 2019, with March year-to-date demand down 0.2%.

Read more about the hotel scene in Delaware County here.

(This story has been updated from its original May 16 posting date.)

[uam_ad id=”62465″]