"It's a dead-center hit," Patrick Ford, president of Portsmouth,NH-based Lodging Econometrics, tells GlobeSt.com. "The creditcrisis and softening lodging operating statistics are having anadverse impact on developers' thinking."

As of the third quarter, Lodging Econometrics counts 5,652projects totaling 740,272 rooms in its US hotel pipeline. The firmnotes that construction starts were down for a second consecutivequarter and that many projects have slid back from scheduled startsover the next 12 months into "early planning" status.

Construction starts have declined during the year to roughly 400projects nationwide through the third quarter, while cancellationsand postponements jumped to 360 between July and September,according to Lodging Econometrics data. The number of new projectannouncements for the quarter totaled 429, roughly half of thoseannounced in the third quarter of 2007.