The Q1 2024 Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE) revealed that the total global pipeline hit an all-time high for room counts and highlighted an increase in full-service projects at the close of the first quarter. LE analysts reported that, in Q1, the total global pipeline stood at 15,366 projects/2,382,195 rooms, a 6 percent increase in projects, and a 3 percent increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).
There were 6,195 projects/1,101,602 rooms currently under construction worldwide in Q1. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 3,840 projects/528,251 rooms, for an 8 percent increase by projects and a 5 percent increase by rooms YOY. Projects and rooms in the early planning stage were at all-time highs and stood at 5,331 projects/752,342 rooms at the Q1 close, increasing 12 percent and 9 percent YOY, respectively.
Notably, full-service branded and unbranded projects experienced a resurgence, dominating the pipeline in Q1. At the close of the first quarter, luxury hotel projects and room counts reached record highs of 1,215 projects/239,744 rooms, a 12 percent increase by projects and a 6 percent increase by rooms YOY, upper upscale closed Q1 with 1,999 projects/445,207 rooms, up 7 percent by projects and 5 percent by rooms YOY, upscale hotel projects stand at a record 4,093 projects with 711,510 rooms, up 7 percent by projects and 4 percent by rooms YOY, and casinos increased 6 percent by projects and 3 percent by rooms YOY to stand at 53 projects/25,023 rooms.
Globally, the countries with the greatest number of full-service projects in the total pipeline in Q1 were led by the United States with 2,272 projects/341,854 rooms, accounting for 41 percent of the projects in the total global full-service pipeline, then China with 1,688 projects/414,323 rooms. Distantly following is India with 334 projects/46,586 rooms. Next is Saudi Arabia with 270 projects/62,744 rooms, and Vietnam with 186 projects/61,426 rooms. These five countries combined, account for 86 percent of the full-service projects in the total global pipeline.
Leading cities, worldwide, with the largest full-service pipeline totals in Q1 were Chengdu, China with 80 projects/21,130 rooms; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with 75 projects/15,025 rooms; Dallas, Texas with 75 projects/10,434 rooms; Los Angeles, California with 68 projects/13,188 rooms, and Shanghai, China with 67 projects/16,569 rooms.
Globally, during the first quarter, 177 new full-service hotels opened, accounting for 32,611 rooms with upscale projects accounting for over 50 percent of the openings. For the remainder of 2024 and through 2025, LE analysts expect upscale projects to continue to account for the majority of projects to open from the total full-service pipeline. Overall, however, throughout the next three quarters, LE forecasts an additional 952 new full-service hotels/181,148 rooms to open, totaling 1,129 new full-service hotels with 213,759 rooms to open by year-end 2024. Looking ahead, the LE forecast for new hotel openings expects another 1,260 new full-service hotels/244,275 rooms to open worldwide in 2025.
