The latest Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE) states that the global hotel construction pipeline stands at 13,943 projects/2,312,410 rooms. Year-over-year (YOY) the total global pipeline decreased 7% by projects and 6% by rooms.
Projects under Construction at year-end 2020 stood at 6,513 projects/1,169,418 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months were at 3,920 projects/573,352 rooms and there were an additional 3,510 projects/569,640 rooms in the early planning stage to round out the total pipeline.
Globally during 2020, 2,562 hotels opened accounting for 357,769 rooms. 636 of those hotels and 94,559 rooms opened in the fourth quarter of 2020. LE is forecasting 2,812 hotels/424,844 rooms to open in 2021 and another 3,255 hotels/498,631 rooms to open in 2022.
The top countries by project count are the United States with 5,216 projects/650,222 rooms and China with 3,375 projects/639,811 rooms. Sixty-two percent of all global projects in the pipeline are found within these two countries. The U.S. accounts for 37% of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China accounts for 24%. Following distantly is the United Kingdom with 372 projects/55,505 rooms, Indonesia with 333 projects/54,411 rooms and Germany with 300 projects/55,346 rooms.
Four of the leading cities with the largest construction pipeline totals are in the United States. Those include New York, NY with 150 projects/25,640 rooms, Los Angeles, CA with 148 projects/24,808 rooms, Dallas, TX with 147 projects/17,756 rooms, and Atlanta, GA with 140 projects/19,863 rooms. Following are three cities in China: Chengdu with 133 projects/27,304 rooms, Shanghai with 130 projects/25,215 rooms, and Guangzhou with 125 projects/25,139 rooms. Dubai then follows with 121 projects/35,837 rooms.
The leading franchise companies in the global construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,584 projects/442,542 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 2,453projects/371,315 rooms; InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,697projects/252,020 rooms; and AccorHotels with 919 projects/167,974 rooms. These four companies account for 55% of all projects in the global pipeline.
Brands leading in the pipeline for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 395 projects/47,620 rooms; Hampton by Hilton with 770 projects/103,086 rooms; IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 650 projects/83,367 rooms; and AccorHotel’s Ibis Brands with 310 projects/43,467 rooms.