China’s hotel construction pipeline has record high project & room counts in early planning

In the recent China Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), LE analysts report that China’s total hotel construction pipeline, at the close of Q3 2022, stands at 3,604 projects/684,288 rooms, up 1% by projects and unchanged by rooms year-over-year (YOY).

Currently, the country has 2,543 projects with 462,132 rooms under construction, with projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months at 417 projects with 78,990 rooms. Projects and room counts in the early planning stage reached record highs in the third quarter, up 13% by projects and 8% by rooms YOY, standing at 644 projects/143,166 rooms. The upscale chain scale hit peak project counts in the third quarter and accounts for 22% of projects and 28% of the rooms in China’s hotel construction pipeline.

In the third quarter, there were 142 new projects with 27,508 rooms announced into the China pipeline. Through the first three quarters of 2022, China has opened 311 projects/49,582 rooms. The LE forecast for new hotel openings expects another 248 projects with 32,524 rooms to open in the fourth quarter of 2022, bringing the anticipated new hotel openings to 559 projects/82,106 rooms by year-end. In 2023, LE analysts forecast 708 new hotel projects, accounting for 110,744 rooms, to open and in 2024 LE forecasts 846 new hotel projects/134,712 rooms to open throughout the country.

Franchise companies topping China’s construction pipeline at the end of Q3 ’22a

Franchise companies topping China’s construction pipeline are led by Hilton Worldwide with 684 projects/124,987 rooms, then InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which has reached a new all-time high by projects for the company in China, with 445 projects/92,094 rooms. Following are Marriott International with 385 projects/102,380 rooms, Accor with 199 projects/37,028 rooms, and Jin Jiang Holdings with 181 projects/18,249 rooms. These five companies account for 53% of the projects in China’s total Q3‘21 construction pipeline.

Top brands in the pipeline at the Q3 close are led by Hampton by Hilton with 354 projects/52,823 rooms. Hilton’s second largest brand, by project count, is its Hilton Garden Inn brand with record high project and room counts of 99 projects/19,287 rooms. IHG brands with the greatest number of project counts in the pipeline are Holiday Inn Express with 182 projects/29,537 rooms and its Holiday Inn brand with 73 projects/17,727 rooms. Jin Jiang Holdings’ top brands in China’s hotel construction pipeline at Q3 are 7 Days Inn with 90 projects/7,060 rooms and its Vienna Hotel brand with 36 projects/3,722 rooms. Marriott brands with the largest project counts are Marriott Hotel with 66 projects/20,241 rooms and Four Points Hotel with 65 projects/17,627 rooms. Accor’s leading brands in China are its Ibis brands with 56 projects/5,866 rooms and its Mercure Hotel brand with 49 projects/7,989 rooms.

Chengdu, with 140 projects/28,208 rooms, has the largest hotel construction pipeline in China at Q3

Cities in China with the largest pipelines, at the Q3 close, are Chengdu with 140 projects/28,208 rooms, Shanghai with 126 projects/25,308 rooms, Guangzhou with 115 projects/25,277 rooms, Hangzhou with 98 projects/20,448 rooms, and Xi’an with 95 projects/17,176.