STR: December Global Hotel Pipeline Down, But Some Plans Up

The total number of U.S. hotel rooms under construction in December 2021 was down roughly 61,000 from the country’s all-time high, achieved in early 2020, according to STR. 

Projects in the final planning stages also are down by 20.6 percent year over year, as the pandemic continues to dampen industry confidence, STR noted. But one sign points to ramping recovery this year: 284,502 rooms in the U.S. are in the planning stages, a 38.9 percent increase over one year prior.

Of the 158,906 rooms currently under construction, New York City holds almost 10 percent, with 15,069 rooms. Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, and Los Angeles all are neck and neck, with construction inventories ranging from 5,368 to 4,620 rooms.

International Markets Mixed

With the exception of the Asia-Pacific region, hotel construction when compared with December 2020 figures, is down worldwide.

Asia-Pacific currently has 473,983 rooms in construction, up 5 percent year over year, of which 61 percent are in China. There are an additional 297,687 rooms (up 16.3 percent) in planning, and 941,880 rooms under contract.

But in Europe, the year-over-year change of all phases of hotel development—construction, final planning, planning, and under contract—are in the red, albeit in single digits. The same is true in the Middle East and Africa, except for final planning, which declined by 14.3 percent.

The Americas are taking another tack: While actual construction and final planning are down by double digit percentages year over year, planning is up 39 percent. 

Most of the development is expected in the U.S., where the total rooms under contract are 628,639, or 83 percent of all Americas’ inventory.