STR: U.S. hotel pipeline grew 6.8 percent in January

THE U.S. HOTEL construction pipeline grew again in January, according to STR. The growth is uneven, however, with more happening in certain markets and in select-service brands.

As of the end of last month, the pipeline contained 1,615 projects accounting for 208,807 rooms in construction. That is 6.8 percent more than the same time last year.

“The industry is now up to more than 208,000 rooms in construction, which is as close as the country has come to the prior end-of-month peak of 211,700 in December 2007,” said Bobby Bowers, STR’s senior vice president of operations. “When looking at year-over-year growth and percentage of existing supply, the pipeline has remained pretty steady on a national level. However, the story remains the same with a disproportionate amount of activity in certain markets and the limited-service sectors.”

There were 64,945 rooms for the upscale segment in the hotel pipeline and 63,528 rooms for upper midscale. New York was the busiest major market with 13,108 rooms making up 10.3 percent of the market’s existing supply.

In 2019 the pipeline saw its eighth consecutive year of growth by increasing 4 percent in terms of projects and 6 percent in terms of rooms, according to Lodging Econometrics.