"Surpassing 5,000 projects in the pipeline is a milestone event," says Ford, reporting that mark is an "astonishing" 47% above the former high posted in 1999. Room count is up 31% from the peak reached that same year. New announcements in Q3 of 817 projects and 102,300 rooms were 375 projects and 43,160 rooms above that found in the previous quarter. It was also the fifth straight quarter of record development growth.

Touted as the global authority on hotel real estate, LE cites a variety of reasons for the escalation, including a shift several years ago where major operators decided to pass the ownership torch to developers and investors and began concentrating on branding and management services. Marriott has been the most strident in that approach, says Ford, but competitors such as Hilton, InterContinental and Starwood have since followed suit.

According to LE, the strategy has allowed for wider distribution of risk and led to a creation of new lodging brands that have further stoked the development fires. Involved in 665 projects and more than 88,600 rooms, Marriott has the greatest potential for increasing combined franchise and management fee income, says Ford. Of the 51 luxury and upper scale projects in the pipeline that are not owned by the hospitality giant, 24 have selected Marriott for the management team, a 47% success rate.

InterContinental is "indisputably' first in the mid-market segment, LE reports. The survey shows that firm with 830 projects and 77,800 rooms spread across its Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express brands. The latter flag has the largest counts of any at 461 projects and 38,440 rooms. Hilton is next with its Hampton Inn and Suites accounting for 372 projects and just fewer than 34,200 rooms.

A healthy, albeit slowing economy has kept lodging developers in the game despite the credit crunch, according to Ford, with the strong third quarter showing no abnormal signs that activity is on the wane. That could, however, be just a matter of time. Some developers might not be able to meet rising investment hurdles, says LE, requiring new partners. "The net result will be project delays," says Ford, adding that "the period of easy credit is over."

As a result, LE anticipates there will be a disruption, probably beginning this quarter, but who it affects may be a question of how far along the development is, whether financing has been secured, and the size and location of the proposed hotel. "Smaller projects that can be financed in the local community will fare better," Ford says. Hotel quality, the flag and management will also be considered by lenders.