At the close of the third quarter, there are 1,185 projects/148,716 rooms under construction, marking an 11% increase in projects and a 6% increase in rooms YOY. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months total 2,209 projects/251,797 rooms. Projects and rooms in early planning reached new all-time highs, at 2,817 projects/322,308 rooms, up 17% by both projects and rooms YOY.
LE analysts report that the upper-midscale chain scale continues to have the largest project count in the U.S. pipeline, reaching a new all-time high of 2,315 projects/224,703 rooms. The upscale chain scale follows with 1,407 projects/174,127 rooms. Together, these two chain scales comprise 60% of all projects in the total pipeline. The midscale segment also showed significant growth, reaching an all-time high with 928 projects/77,600 rooms, up 19% by projects and 16% by rooms YOY.
Construction starts grew to the highest level in 2024 to end the quarter, with 181 projects/20,840 rooms, up 18% by projects and 25% by rooms YOY. At Q3, brand conversion activity also reached an all-time-high project count with 1,247 projects/120,912 rooms. Combined with renovation activity of 722 projects/141,136 rooms, the total renovation and brand conversion pipeline in the U.S. stands at 1,969 projects/262,048 rooms.
Through the third quarter, 408 new hotels with 48,258 rooms opened in the U.S. this year, with another 223 projects/23,902 rooms anticipated to open by year-end 2024. LE projects the year to finish at 631 new hotels with 72,160 rooms, a 1.3% supply increase. Looking ahead, LE analysts forecast 759 new hotels/86,264 rooms to open in 2025, representing a 1.5% supply increase. For 2026, LE forecasts 938 new hotels/101,017 rooms to open, amounting to a supply increase of 1.8%.
Tags: Hotel construction pipeline, Lodging Econometrics (LE), Q3 2024 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report