U.S. hotel pipeline closed 2019 with 4 percent projects increase

THE U.S. HOTEL pipeline has completed its eighth consecutive year of growth in 2019 with a year-over-year increase of 4 percent in terms of projects and 6 percent in terms of rooms, according to Lodging Econometrics.

There were 5,748 projects with 708,898 rooms in the pipeline at the end of last year, according to LE, about 135 projects and 76,649 rooms shy of the 2008 second quarter peak of 5,883 projects and 785,547 rooms.

The pipeline was near an all-time high by November.

Projects under construction reached an all-time high of 1,768 projects with 237, 362 rooms, up 7 percent by projects and 10 percent by rooms compared to the previous year. The year also saw 2.2 percent growth in new supply with 1,017 new hotels and 118,674 rooms, bringing the total U.S. amount to 57,903 hotels and 5,486,909 rooms.

LE predicts a 2.3 percent supply growth rate in 2020 with 1,127 new hotels with 127,896 rooms expected to open.

A total of 2,283 projects with 265,161 rooms are scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months while 1,697 projects with 206,375 rooms are in the early planning stage.

The forecast for new hotel openings in 2021 also increased slightly to 1,162 new hotels with 135,228 rooms, a 2.4 percent growth rate.

LE further predicts an optimistic hotel construction pipeline outlook in the U.S. through 2020 and through the early part of the new decade.

“The financial markets are strong, a partial trade agreement between the U.S. and China has been reached, and interest rates could very well go unchanged in 2020,” LE said in a statement. “Overall, the economy is in a good place, and the concerns of a possible recession have eased. Lenders continue to be cautious, but lending at attractive rates is still accessible to developers and should continue to drive development.”