THE U.S. TOPS the global hotel construction pipeline with 5,220 projects containing 621,268 rooms in the first six months of 2022, according to Lodging Econometrics. Dallas leads the pipeline in major markets with 173 projects and 20,707 rooms.
The total global construction pipeline stands at 14,117 projects containing 2,293,131 rooms, up 5 percent by projects and 2 percent by rooms year-over-year, LE said.
The bi-annual Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report has revealed that there are 6,074 projects with 1,110,174 rooms currently under construction in the first six months of this year.
As many as 3,664 projects with 525,096 rooms are scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, up 1 percent by projects YOY and unchanged by rooms. Projects in early planning reached record-high project and room counts of 4,379 projects containing 657,861 rooms, up 22 percent by projects and 13 percent by rooms YOY, the LE report said.
Conversions in the global hotel construction pipeline reached new highs in the second quarter, with 1,672 projects containing 206,355 rooms.
China stands second globally in the pipeline with 3,693 projects containing 701,974 rooms. The U.S. accounts for 37 percent of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China has 26 percent, resulting in 63 percent of all global projects.
India has 339 projects with 42,548 rooms, the UK with 309 projects containing 46,296 rooms, and Indonesia with 284 projects with 45,359 rooms.
Chengdu, China follows Dallas in largest pipelines by project count with 141 projects containing 28,573 rooms, followed by Atlanta with 140 projects with 18,131 rooms. Shanghai, China, follows with 128 projects containing 25,200 rooms, and Los Angeles with 124 projects containing 20,365 rooms.
Hilton Worldwide is the leading franchise company in the global construction pipeline with 2,596 projects containing 379,818 rooms. Marriott International follows closely with 2,533 projects with 421,613 rooms. InterContinental Hotels Group with 1,687 projects with 247,310 rooms, and Accor with 894 projects containing 155,577 rooms are the other major brands in the pipeline. These four account for 55 percent of all projects in the pipeline.
According to LE, brands leading the pipeline are Hampton by Hilton with 768 projects containing 100,732 rooms, followed by Fairfield Inn with 343 projects with 42,113 rooms, Holiday Inn Express with 610 projects with 76,991 rooms and Ibis by Accor with 250 projects containing 32,362 rooms.
The first half of 2022 saw a total of 803 new hotels with 121,029 rooms open around the world with an additional 1,653 hotels containing 244,956 rooms scheduled to open by year-end. In 2023, 2,658 new hotels with 416,640 rooms are expected to open. For 2024, LE is forecasting 2,786 new hotels, accounting for 435,870 rooms, to open around the world.
A recent LE report said that the U.S. hotel construction pipeline continued its growth at the end of the second quarter of 2022 as travel returned.