January 24, 2018 – PORTSMOUTH, NH – According to the year-end U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), the pipeline stands at 5,151 Projects/623,695 Rooms, up 4% by projects Year-Over-Year (YOY).
There are 1,544 Projects/200,632 Rooms Under Construction, up 2% by projects YOY. Projects Scheduled to Start Construction in the Next 12 Months, at 2,101 Projects/245,214 Rooms are down 12% by projects YOY.
Projects in Early Planning are at 1,506 Projects/177,849 Rooms, up 44% by projects YOY. The rapid growth of new brands announced by major franchise companies in 2017 contributed to the increase in projects in the Early Planning stage. The end of the year also tends to encourage developers and brands to finalize franchise construction agreements and review timelines on existing agreements, which both contribute to an uptick in Early Planning.
Despite the slight deceleration of the pipeline’s overall growth observed over the past several quarters, the Total Pipeline continued its upward growth trend through the end of 2017.
The five U.S. markets with the largest hotel construction pipelines by project count are: New York with 180 Projects/30,699 Rooms; Dallas with 149 Projects/17,860 Rooms; Houston with 146 Projects/15,714 Rooms; Nashville, dipping below 120 projects for the first time since Q216, has 116 Projects/15,793 Rooms; and Los Angeles has 110 Projects/16,733 Rooms.
New York has the most New Hotel Openings forecasted for 2018 with 57 Hotels/9,534 Rooms, then Dallas, which is expected to open 34 Hotels/3,841 Rooms, followed by Houston with 31 Hotels/3,113 Rooms. New York is also forecasted to open the most hotels in 2019 with 37 Projects/4,601 Rooms, followed closely by Houston with 36 Projects/4,381 Rooms expected to open next year.
