According to the year-end U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics, the nation’s hotel construction pipeline stood at 5,151 projects/623,695 rooms at the end of 2017, up 4 percent by projects year-over-year (YOY).
The number of projects under construction nationwide at the year’s end—1,544 projects and 200,632 rooms—was up 2 percent since year-end 2016. The number of projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stood at 2,101 projects/245,214 rooms—down 12 percent by projects YOY.
The number of projects in the early planning stage is at 1,506 projects/177,849 rooms, up 44 percent 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. Lodging Econometrics analysts also pointed out that the end of the year tends to encourage developers and brands to finalize franchise construction agreements and review timelines on existing agreements, which both contribute to an uptick in project recorded in the early planning stage.
Despite the slight deceleration of the pipeline’s overall growth observed over the past several quarters, Lodging Econometrics analysts said that the total pipeline continued its upward growth trend through the end of 2017.
