As seen in the third quarter United States Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), the top five markets with the largest hotel construction pipelines by projects at Q3 2023 are led by Dallas, with an all-time high of 189 projects/21,840 rooms, followed by Atlanta, with 140 projects/17,775 rooms, and Nashville, with 122 projects/16,046 rooms. Next is Phoenix, with 119 projects/16,455 rooms, and the Inland Empire, with 117 projects/11,784 rooms.
At the Q3 close, New York City continues to have the greatest number of projects under construction, with 46 projects/8,386 rooms. Phoenix follows with 26 projects/5,353 rooms, then Atlanta with 26 projects/4,354 rooms, Dallas with 25 projects/3,178 rooms, and finally the Inland Empire with 23 projects/2,386 rooms.
Dallas has the most projects scheduled to start in the next 12 months with 80 projects/9,021 rooms, followed by Atlanta with 60 projects/7,311 rooms, Austin with 47 projects/5,683 rooms, the Inland Empire with 47 projects/4,668 rooms, and then Los Angeles with 46 projects/7,113 rooms.
Dallas also leads the top five markets with the greatest number of projects in the early planning stage at the end of the third quarter with 84 projects/9,641 rooms, then Nashville with 59 projects/7,176 rooms, Atlanta with 54 projects/6,110 rooms, Los Angeles with 53 projects/8,699 rooms, and Phoenix with 51 projects/6,425 rooms.
Orlando has the highest number of new projects announced into the pipeline in the third quarter with 10 projects/2,217 rooms, followed by Phoenix with 9 projects/1,457 rooms, then Dallas with 9 projects/1,003 rooms, Nashville with 8 projects/900 rooms, and then Atlanta with 8 projects/782 rooms.
The renovation and conversion pipeline activity remains strong in the U.S. at Q3 with 1,912 hotels/285,568 rooms presently under renovation or conversion. Forty of the top 50 markets in the U.S. currently have 10 or more hotels undergoing renovation or conversion at the end of the quarter. Atlanta has the greatest number of renovation or conversion projects in the pipeline at Q3, with a combined total of 40 projects/4,307 rooms.
In the first three quarters of 2023, the U.S. opened 345 new hotels with 41,115 rooms. Forty-nine percent of these new hotels opened through Q3 are within the top 50 U.S. markets. The markets with the highest number of new openings through Q3 are New York City with 14 hotels/2,407 rooms, Atlanta with 11 hotels/1,108 rooms, Detroit with 10 hotels/1,292 rooms, Houston with 8 hotels/1,154 rooms, and Austin with 8 hotels/1,001 rooms.
U.S. markets forecast to open the greatest number of new hotels in 2023 are New York City with 30 projects/5,706 rooms, Houston with 13 projects/1,660 rooms, Atlanta with 13 projects/1,279 rooms, the Inland Empire with 13 projects/1,141 rooms, and Dallas with 11 projects/1,775 rooms. For the past three years, New York City has opened the most hotels per year and is forecast to do the same through year-end 2024. In 2025, LE analysts expect Atlanta to surpass NYC and have the greatest number of new hotel openings, with 24 new hotels/2,874 rooms forecast to open by year-end.