As seen in the Q2 2025 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the end of the second quarter, there were 6,280 projects with 737,036 rooms in the pipeline. This represented a 3 percent year-over-year (YOY) increase in both projects and rooms compared to Q2 2024 totals.
At the close of the second quarter, there were 1,120 projects comprising 138,776 rooms under construction. Projects slated to start construction anytime within the next 12 months totaled 2,263, comprising 260,052 rooms. Both projects and rooms in the under-construction and scheduled to start in the next 12 months stages of the pipeline were down slightly YOY at the close of the quarter. However, projects and room counts in the early planning stage increased by 13 percent and 14 percent YOY, respectively, ending the quarter at 2,897 projects and 338,208 rooms.
Chain Scales Drive Pipeline Growth
LE analysts reported that the upper midscale chain scale stood at 2,282 projects/219,875 rooms at the end of the second quarter of 2025 and had the highest project count of all chain scales in the total U.S. construction pipeline. The second largest was the upscale chain scale, which had 1,427 projects/177,756 rooms. Together, the upscale and upper midscale chain scales comprised 59 percent of all projects in the total pipeline. The top three chainscales by project count (upper midscale, upscale, and midscale), combined total 4,658 projects/477,066 rooms, represented 74 percent of all projects and 65 percent of all rooms in the pipeline.
The upper upscale chain scale experienced notable growth with an 11 percent increase in projects YOY, reaching 360 projects/67,680 rooms. The midscale chain scale also showed strong YOY growth with a 6 percent increase in projects, totaling 949 projects/79,435 rooms.
Extended-Stay Brands Continue Pipeline Dominance
Extended-stay brands continued to remain popular with developers, accounting for 38 percent of the projects under construction, 43 percent of projects scheduled to begin within the next 12 months, and 37 percent of projects in the early planning stage. The total extended-stay pipeline stood at 2,473 projects/252,028 rooms, representing 39 percent of all projects in the total pipeline, and showed a 3 percent increase in projects and 2 percent increase in rooms YOY.
Middle-tier extended-stay brands led the segment with 1,625 projects/152,557 rooms, showing a 6 percent increase in projects and a 5 percent increase in rooms YOY. Upper-tier extended-stay brands accounted for 670 projects/79,103 rooms, while lower-tier brands comprised 178 projects/20,368 rooms.
Throughout the first two quarters, 148 new extended-stay hotels/15,397 rooms opened in the U.S. By year-end 2025, LE analysts forecast a total of 293 new extended-stay hotels/30,341 rooms to open, expanding the U.S. extended-stay supply by 5.0 percent. In 2026, 340 new extended-stay hotels/34,909 rooms were anticipated to open, a 5.5 percent growth in extended-stay supply. LE forecast that in 2027, an additional 385 new extended-stay hotels/39,801 rooms will open, marking a 5.9 percent growth in U.S. extended-stay supply.
Development Activity and Conversions
According to LE analysts, 329 new hotels with 39,628 rooms opened in the U.S. during the first and second quarters of 2025. New project announcements (NPAs) in Q2 totaled 237 projects/27,101 rooms. Construction starts reached 155 projects/17,169 rooms.
Announced renovations and brand conversions, combined, reached 1,956 projects/259,495 rooms, with conversions showing strong growth at 1,364 projects/129,164 rooms, up 11 percent in both projects and rooms YOY. Renovations totaled 592 projects/130,331 rooms. Together, hotel conversions and renovations represented 31 percent of all projects and 35 percent of all rooms in the non-new-construction pipeline.
2025-2027 New Openings Forecast
The LE forecast for the remainder of 2025 included the opening of another 406 projects with 45,160 rooms, totaling 735 new hotels with 84,788 rooms by year-end for a 1.5 percent growth rate. The year-end 2025 forecast represented a 25 percent increase over the total number of hotel openings in 2024, which stood at 590 hotels/68,716 rooms. Looking ahead to 2026, LE analysts anticipated 823 new hotels/89,073 rooms to open, representing a 1.6 percent growth rate.
Announced for the first time was LE’s U.S. New Hotel Openings Forecast for 2027, which estimated 902 projects/96,242 rooms to open in the U.S., marking continued supply growth of 1.7 percent.
