PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire—The latest Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE) states that as of Q4 2021, the global hotel construction pipeline stands at 13,770 projects/2,304,386 rooms. Year-over-year (YOY) the total global pipeline decreased 1 percent by projects and is largely unchanged by rooms.
Worldwide, at year-end, there are 6,101 projects/1,136,680 rooms currently under construction. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 3,547 projects/518,159 rooms at the end of 2021, and projects in the early planning stage are at all-time highs and stand at 4,122 projects/649,547 rooms. Conversion projects are at an all-time high as well, standing at 1,448 projects/190,322 rooms.
The top countries by project count are the United States with 4,814 projects/581,953 rooms and China reaching a new all-time high at Q4 with 3,693 projects/700,567 rooms. The United States accounts for 35 percent of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China accounts for 27 percent, resulting in 62 percent of all global projects in just these two countries. Following is the United Kingdom with 313 projects/48,770 rooms, Indonesia with 304 projects/48,175 rooms, and Germany with 277 projects/48,827 rooms.
Around the world, the cities with the largest pipeline counts are Dallas, Texas, with 152 projects/18,180 rooms; Chengdu, China, with 144 projects/29,485 rooms; and Atlanta, Georgia, with 133 projects/17,593 rooms. Shanghai, China, follows with 127 projects/24,279 rooms, and then New York, New York, with 121 projects/19,303 rooms.
The leading franchise companies in the global construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,536 projects/426,744 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 2,521 projects/376,251 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,652 projects/244,179 rooms, and AccorHotels with 940 projects/166,411 rooms. These four companies account for 56 percent of all projects in the global pipeline.
Brands leading in the pipeline for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn, with 360 projects/43,791 rooms, Hampton by Hilton with 764 projects/101,455 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 613 projects/78,791 rooms, and Accor’s Ibis Brands with 274 projects/37,937 rooms.
Globally, throughout 2021, 2,246 hotels opened, accounting for 340,667 rooms. Four hundred sixty-nine of those hotels and 76,363 rooms opened in the fourth quarter of 2021. LE is forecasting 2,805 hotels/428,037 rooms to open in 2022 and another 2,934 hotels/447,575 rooms to open in 2023.
