Hilton opened its new Homewood Suites on Wednesday on Philadelphia Road in Bel Air . The all-suite hotel has 92 rooms on five floors. Guests of the hotel receive a free hot breakfast, nightly reception and 24-hour snack pantry. The hotel also has a swimming pool, sports court, whirlpool and meeting space.

The Baltimore region is having a rash of hotel openings. Near Arundel Mills, the Element and Aloft hotels opened side-by-side a little more than six months ago. There's also an Aloft hotel that opened at BWI Marshall Airport. A new Country Inn & Suites opened in Rosedale earlier this year. In the city, the Fairfield Inn & Suites and Kimpton's Hotel Monaco Baltimore open this month. (See our story on green hotels here.)  And of course, the giant Hilton Baltimore, a convention center hotel with nearly 800 rooms, opened last summer.

And there are more hotels on deck: In September, the new Holiday Inn Express & Suites opens on Gay Street in downtown Baltimore. (It was supposed to open this month.) Hotel Indigo, a boutique hotel, from the same group that owns Holiday Inn, is scheduled to open by the end of the year. And I'm probably forgetting a couple.

With travel slowing this year, I guess it's a good sign that hospitality groups have confidence in Baltimore as a market. Or, all of these projects began years ago before the economy went bust. Glass half-full. Glass half-empty. Take your pick.

Photo courtesy of Aloft Hotels