PORTSMOUTH, N.H.—The global hotel construction pipeline stands at 14,779 projects/2,412,736 rooms, according to the latest report from Lodging Econometrics (LE). Year over year (YOY), the pipeline increased 5 percent by projects and 4 percent by rooms with several stages of the pipeline hitting peaks by project and rooms counts.
The number of under-construction projects (6,896) is at an all-time high room count of 1,230,572 rooms. 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 United States with 5,582 projects/687,801 rooms and China reaching a new all-time high with 3,574 projects/647,704 rooms. These two countries comprise 62 percent of all global projects in the pipeline—the United States accounts for 38 percent of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China accounts for 24 percent. Distantly following are the United Kingdom 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 hotel construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,682 projects/452,459 rooms, Hilton Worldwide 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 percent 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.
