MIAMI—According to the Urban Land Institute, 61% of Americans would choose smaller housing in favor of a shorter commute to work. And 53% prefer neighborhoods close to shops, restaurants and offices.

It's no great surprise that Homewood Suites by Hilton and Home2Suites by Hilton has found a similar preference from its extended stay guests. In the company's most recent survey of business travelers, 55% of respondents indicated a preference for walking over other forms of transportation for traveling in and around their destination.

"This was a telling finding, considering the same survey found 66% of travelers booking hotels based on locality versus price," Bill Duncan, Global Head, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Home2 Suites by Hilton, tells GlobeSt.com. "Understanding this trend Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites, has made a dedicated effort to open new hotels in urban locations such as New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Atlanta."

Although extended stay hotels typically have been developed in the suburbs, Duncan says, in the past year Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites has increased their urban footprint significantly. Combined its extended stay brands currently have 23 properties in metropolitan centers, with 15 more urban properties slated to open before the end of 2016. 

"In fact, 20 percent of Homewood Suites' pipeline is in urban developments, which is the strongest urban pipeline the brand has ever had," Duncan says. "But like for all commercial real estate segments, this urban evolution has required the extended stay hotel product to bend and flex."

For Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites that has meant the creation of innovative building models, like adaptive reuse developments that convert defunct condo buildings or abandoned office space into hotels, or dual-branded hotels where two hotel brands are developed on the same site and share certain operating expenses.

Duncan explains that, "Homewood Suites also took it one step further, launching a new, more flexible prototype making it easier for owners to develop our all-suite hotels in tighter urban markets while still maintaining the brand standards our customers have come to expect." Meanwhile, select service hotels are selling like hotcakes.