STR: U.S. Hotel Construction Declines but Planning Activity is Up

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—While a steady hotel construction decline continues nationally, volume in New York City and Nashville represents a significant percentage of those markets’ existing supply. Additionally, planning activity continues to rise nationally with markets like Miami, Phoenix, and San Francisco showing increased interest from developers, according to STR.

U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline
March 2022 (percentage change in comparison with March 2021):
In Construction: 154,881 rooms (down 15.7 percent)
Final Planning: 177,756 rooms (down 16.8 percent)
Planning: 297,046 rooms (up 26.3 percent)

New York City leads the major markets in rooms in construction as a percentage of existing supply.

1. New York (11.5 percent, 14,288 rooms)
2. Nashville (8.0 percent, 4,394 rooms)
3. Detroit (5.7 percent, 2,637 rooms)
4. Miami (5.4 percent, 3,450 rooms)

“New York City has led the development pipeline for quite some time,” said Carter Wilson, STR’s senior vice president of consulting. “Most of these rooms have been in development since before or right at the beginning of the pandemic, and the hope is their opening will be met with solid levels of recovery in international arrivals, groups, and business travelers in addition to continued high levels of domestic leisure travelers.”

When looking at the planning phase of the pipeline, Miami shows the highest number of rooms as a percentage of existing supply.

1. Miami (15.6 percent, 9,986 rooms)
2. Nashville (14.3 percent, 7,877 rooms)
3. Phoenix (10.2 percent, 7,134 rooms)
4. San Francisco/San Mateo (8.9 percent, 4,842 rooms)

“It is no surprise that Miami and Phoenix are showing increased rooms in the planning phase, as both markets have been outperformers throughout the pandemic,” Wilson said. “On the other hand, there’s San Francisco, which has consistently been near the bottom when looking at pandemic performance. The market’s strong positioning in the pipeline seems to imply developer confidence in the return of business and group demand. San Francisco’s group demand did, in fact, make a brief yet stellar return recently, helped by the Game Developers Conference and NCAA Basketball. That reinforces the substantial impact that segment has on the market.”