BWH® Hotels has opened @HOME by Best Western McDonough, a five-story, 128-suite extended-stay property in McDonough, Ga., marking the brand's first Southeast U.S. location and its second opening in the country. Developed by Raj Patel and Apsilon Hotels — an Atlanta-area ownership and management group operating 18 properties — the new-build sits at 34 Liberty Industrial Parkway off I-75 Exit 216, positioning it squarely within one of the region's most active logistics and distribution markets.

The Location Play

The site selection is deliberate. The McDonough corridor encompasses more than 80 million square feet of industrial and distribution facilities, and Norfolk Southern operates a corporate training facility nearby. That mix of infrastructure draws a steady flow of project-based workers, employee relocations, and corporate training participants — exactly the guest profile extended-stay brands covet. Atlanta Motor Speedway and Historic Downtown McDonough add a leisure buffer for weekend-stay revenue.

"Selecting McDonough for this project was a strategic choice driven by the area's robust economic growth along the I-75 corridor and strong demand from business, logistics and long-term travelers," said Raj Patel, Chief Executive Officer of Apsilon Hotels. "@HOME by Best Western strikes the right balance between the comforts of home and the convenience of hotel living."

Each suite includes a full kitchen and dedicated workspace. Property-wide amenities include a lobby market, fitness center, guest laundry, on-property storage closets, EV charging, and complimentary parking with wide-berth spaces sized for large trucks and RVs — a telling nod to the industrial-worker guest mix.

Pipeline Momentum

The McDonough opening accelerates what BWH® Hotels describes as growing developer interest in the extended-stay segment. The brand has now opened in St. George, Utah; Walkerton, Ontario; and McDonough, with a second Atlanta-area property in Fairburn, Ga. — also by Apsilon Hotels — slated for 2027. Across its full extended-stay portfolio, BWH's global pipeline is projected to reach 34 hotels and 2,791 rooms by end of 2026.

"Extended-stay remains one of the most resilient and attractive segments in hospitality, and @HOME by Best Western is proving to be a powerful growth vehicle for our developers," said Brad LeBlanc, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer for BWH Hotels. He cited an efficient operating model and compelling owner economics as key drivers of pipeline momentum.

For hospitality operators watching the extended-stay space, the McDonough opening underscores a broader industry pattern: new-build extended-stay product is increasingly targeting secondary and tertiary markets anchored by logistics, manufacturing, and distribution activity rather than traditional urban business districts. Our hospitality industry trend coverage has tracked this shift as workforce travel demand reshapes development decisions across the Southeast and Sun Belt. Operators considering similar markets would do well to study how amenity packages — particularly kitchen suites, bulk storage, and oversize parking — are being engineered specifically around the project-labor guest segment, a dynamic also visible in extended-stay and lodging sector analysis.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.