PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—Lodging Econometrics (LE) has released its bi-annual Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report, which compiles the construction pipeline counts for every country and market around the world. According to the report, the total global construction pipeline has reached all-time highs of 12,839 projects and 2,158,422 rooms. The construction pipeline is up 86 percent by projects over the cyclical low established in 2011 when global counts were at 6,907 projects/1,257,296 rooms.
There are 5,988 projects/1,133,017 rooms currently under construction worldwide. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 3,945 projects/570,731 rooms—both counts are at record highs. Projects in the early planning stage stand at 2,906 rooms/454,674 projects, just 134 projects short of the record high established in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The top countries by project count are the United States, which has been rising since 2011, with 5,312 projects/634,501 rooms, and China with 2,523 projects/556,645 rooms which has been topping out for the last 4.5 years. The United States accounts for 41 percent of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China accounts for 20 percent—together, these two countries account for 61 percent of projects in the global pipeline. Distantly following are Indonesia with 394 projects/66,759 rooms, Germany with 247 projects/47,155 rooms, and the United Kingdom with 247 projects/36,487 rooms.
The cities with the largest pipeline counts are New York with 169 projects/29,365 rooms, Dubai with 163 projects/47,783 rooms, and Dallas with 156 projects/18,908 rooms. These are followed by Houston with 150 projects/16,321 rooms and Shanghai with 121 projects/24,759 rooms. Of the top 10 cities having pipelines with more than 100 projects, six are located in the United States and three are located in China.
The leading five franchise companies in the global construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,324 projects/391,058 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 2,202 projects/327,723 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,653 projects/244,038 rooms, and AccorHotels with 809 projects/147,647 rooms. As of June 30, 2018, Choice has 1,024 hotels and 84,350 rooms in its worldwide pipeline. Hyatt, at 212 rooms/45,117 projects, is also significant with their portfolio of large luxury and upper upscale projects as well Best Western with 275 projects/29,243 rooms, which are concentrated in the middle three chain scales.
The 25-year explosion of hotel brands now totals 610 globally. Marriott leads with 29 labels, followed by Accor with 25, Hilton with 15, IHG and Hyatt with 12 each, and Choice with 11.
Leading pipeline brands for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 345 projects/37,224 rooms, Hilton’s Hampton Inn with 604 projects/77,193 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 713 projects/88,689 rooms, AccorHotels’ ibis Brands with 358 projects/53,387 rooms, and Choice’s Comfort Suites with 322 projects/26,878 rooms.
As a result of record pipeline totals, new hotel openings continue to hit record levels. In 2020, totals could reach a lofty 3,000 new hotel openings, approximately 1,250 of them being in the United States.
CORRECTION: The original information stated that Choice Hotels had a pipeline of 705 hotels and 58,512 rooms and 15 brands. As of June 30, 2018 Choice had 1,024 hotels and 84,350 rooms in its worldwide pipeline, and 11 brands. In addition, as of June 30, Choice had 322 Comfort brand hotels and 26,878 rooms in its pipeline.
