PORTSMOUTH, NH—The global pipeline of hotel rooms rose 6% year over year as of this past Dec. 31, Lodging Econometrics said Tuesday. An exception to the general upward trend was China, where the total number of projects declined by 7% from the year-ago level.

LE's latest Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report has 2016 with 11,776 projects representing 1,962,676 keys in the pipeline. Of that, there were 5,504 projects under construction, up 4% Y-O-Y and accounting for slightly more than half the total room count. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, at 3,675 projects/516,709 keys, were up by 21%, while those in early planning were down 7% by projects.

Although China's project count is off compared to a year earlier, it's still the world's second highest at 2,304 projects, second only to the US at 4,960. Between them, the US and China account for 57% of the global total of rooms in the pipeline: the US with 598,688 keys, or 30-% of the total, and China with 525,640 keys, or 27%.

That being said, the US is not home to the city with the most sizable pipeline in terms of the keys that will be added to the inventory. That would be Dubai, with 32,899 keys, followed by New York with 30,541 and two Chinese cities: Shanghai with 23,252 keys and Sanya with 22,629. New York City, though, still leads in terms of the number of projects in the pipeline, with 192 in various stages of development.

The leading franchise companies in the LE Global Construction Pipeline by project count are: Marriott International with 2,190 projects/368,077 keys, Hilton Worldwide with 1,841 projects/283,326 keys, InterContinental Hotels Group with 1,351 projects/209,208 keys and Choice Hotels with 488 projects/42,933 keys. The leading brands for each of these companies are: Marriott's Fairfield Inn with 342 projects/35,703 keys, Hilton's Hampton Inn with 489 projects/57,222 keys, IHG's Holiday Inn Express with 602 projects/73,282 keys and Choice's Comfort Inn with 117 projects/11,239 keys.

Instant Insights /

Global Lodging Pipeline Continues to Fill

Related Stories

Recommended For You