PORTSMOUTH, NH—According to the latest global hotel construction pipeline trend report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), the global hotel construction pipeline stands at 14,779 projects/2,412,736 rooms. Year-over-year (YOY), the pipeline increased 5% by projects and 4% by rooms, with several stages of the pipeline hitting their peaks by project and rooms counts.
Under Construction is at an all-time-high room count with 1,230,572 rooms/6,896 projects. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are also hitting a peak project count to end the second quarter with 4,599 projects/651,133 rooms. There are an additional 3,283 projects/531,031 rooms in the early planning stage of the pipeline.
The top countries by project count are the U.S. with 5,582 projects/687,801 rooms and China reaching a new all-time high with 3,574 projects/647,704 rooms. Sixty-two percent of all global projects in the pipeline are found within these two countries. The U.S. accounts for 38% of projects in the total global construction pipeline, while China accounts for 24%. Distantly following are the U.K. with 350 projects/52,398 rooms, Indonesia with 345 projects/56,373 rooms and Germany with 296 projects/39,645 rooms.
Around the world, the cities with the largest pipeline counts are Los Angeles with 163 projects/27,415 rooms; Dallas with 158 projects/19,314 rooms; and New York with 151 projects/26,302 rooms. Dubai follows with 144 projects/44,895 rooms, then Guangzhou, China, with 140 projects/27,753 rooms and Atlanta with 135 projects/18,634 rooms.
The leading franchise companies in the global construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,682 projects/452,459 rooms; Hilton with 2,532 projects/378,124 rooms; InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,798 projects/263,057 rooms; and Accor with 886 projects/157,362 rooms. These four companies account for 53% of all projects in the global pipeline.
Brands leading in the pipeline for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 431 projects/50,249 rooms; Hampton by Hilton with 775 projects/102,815 rooms; IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 712 projects/90,479 rooms; and Accor’s Ibis Brands with 319 projects/44,817 rooms.
Throughout the first half of 2020, the world opened 891 hotels, accounting for 131,921 rooms.
