In the Q3 2025 China Construction Pipeline Trend Report by Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the end of the quarter, China’s total hotel construction pipeline stands at 3,695 projects with 656,873 rooms.
At the close of the third quarter, there are 2,728 projects/478,859 rooms under construction in China. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 332 projects/56,141 rooms. Projects in the early planning stage total 635 projects with 121,873 rooms. Construction starts increased in Q3, rising 10% year-over-year (YOY) by projects and 5% by rooms, to close the quarter at 265 projects/41,189 rooms. New project announcements in China in the third quarter totaled 252 projects/34,721 rooms.
The upper midscale chain scale reached a record-high project count this quarter, ending Q3 with 1,229 projects/185,208 rooms, up 1% by projects YOY. The upscale chain scale has 1,049 projects/219,728 rooms, up 2% by projects YOY. Combined, these two chain scales account for 62% of both projects and rooms in China’s hotel construction pipeline.
Combined brand conversions and hotel renovations in China reached record-high project totals at Q3, increasing 21% YOY by projects and 9% YOY by rooms, with 225 hotels/41,370 rooms. Brand conversions alone hit record-high project and room counts, with 208 projects/36,038 rooms.
Cities in China with the largest pipelines at the Q3 close are led by Chengdu with 137 projects/24,412 rooms, then Shanghai with 128 projects/22,151 rooms, Guangzhou with 124 projects/24,792 rooms, Hangzhou with 105 projects/20,006 rooms, and Xi’an with 88 projects/15,201 rooms.
Through the third quarter of 2025, 743 new hotels totaling 106,788 rooms have opened in China. The LE forecast for new hotel openings expects another 316 hotels with 45,900 rooms to open in the fourth quarter, bringing the forecasted new hotel openings to 1,059 new hotels with 152,688 rooms by year-end 2025.
LE analysts forecast 978 new hotels with 143,603 rooms to open by year-end 2026. In 2027, analysts expect 739 new hotel openings with 142,076 rooms to open.