At the close of the first quarter, projects under construction in Canada stand at 62 projects/8,114 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 91 projects/12,473 rooms, a 23% increase by projects and 50% by rooms YOY, and projects in the early planning stage stand at 105 projects/15,181 rooms.
At Q1, the province of Ontario leads Canada’s construction pipeline with 151 projects/20,533 rooms, at a record-high and responsible for 59% of the projects in the country’s pipeline. Following distantly is British Columbia with 36 projects/5,668 rooms and Alberta with 23 projects/3,365 rooms. Together, the three provinces account for 81% of projects in Canada’s hotel construction pipeline at Q1.
Cities in Canada with the most projects in the pipeline in the first quarter continue to be led by Toronto, with 64 projects/9,312 rooms. Toronto, alone, has 25% of all the projects currently in the country’s pipeline. Following Toronto is Montreal with 14 projects/2,066, then Vancouver with 14 projects/2,016 rooms, Niagara Falls with 11 projects/3,341 rooms, and Ottawa with 10 projects/1,694 rooms. These top five cities, combined, account for 44% of the projects and 52% of the rooms in Canada’s total pipeline.
The top hotel franchise companies in Canada’s construction pipeline at Q1 are Marriott International with 70 projects and record-high rooms counts of 9,527 rooms. Following Marriott is Hilton with 66 projects/7,930 rooms and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), with 43 projects/4,371 rooms.
The top brands in Canada’s pipeline are Hampton by Hilton with 27 projects/3,016 rooms. Next is IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 22 projects/2,313 rooms and TownePlace Suites by Marriott with 16 projects/1,728 rooms. Other notable brands in the Canadian pipeline are Home2 Suites by Hilton, with record-high counts by projects and rooms in Q1 of 16 projects/1,711 rooms; Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 16 projects/1,533 rooms and Tru by Hilton with 13 projects/1,282 rooms.
Canada had 36 new hotels with 3,922 rooms open in 2021 at a growth rate of 1.1%. In 2022, LE analysts forecast the country will open 35 new hotel projects, accounting for 3,844 rooms for a growth rate of 1.1%. In 2023, LE is forecasting a slight increase in Canada’s growth rate to 1.3%, and counts are expected to rise with 40 new hotel projects/4,767 rooms forecast to open by year-end.
