I think it's possibly relative to the area as well as the hotel. If it's a huge hotel in the middle of downtown Atlanta and took 2 years to build, I'd want to call it new for the next 2 years. If it's the newest hotel in the city, or if it hasn't used most of it's rooms yet, I'd call it new. Also, if they open the hotel in April 2005, and are still building the conference center or an additional wing for the next year, then it could carry the "newness" for an additional year.

What's the average useful life of a hotel? If it's a Motel 6 with 20 rooms, I wouldn't call it new after 6 months. Each room would have been used hundreds of times.