STR: New York City Positioned for Post-COVID Hotel Room Supply Boom

New York City is well ahead of all other U.S. markets in hotel rooms under construction and projected openings for the remainder of 2021, according to pipeline data from STR’s AM:PM platform.

As of 1 July 2021, New York City showed almost 22,000 rooms in construction. Only four other markets have more than 5,000 rooms in that final phase of the pipeline:

  1. New York (21,878 rooms)
  2. Los Angeles (6,595 rooms)
  3. Atlanta (6,398 rooms)
  4. Las Vegas (5,031 rooms)
  5. Dallas (5,028 rooms)

Of those almost 22,000 rooms under construction, more than 8,500 are scheduled to come online over the remainder of this year. That would put the market at more than 11,400 room openings overall in 2021. The next closest market for remaining 2021 openings is once again Los Angeles. The top four include:

  1. New York City (8,570 rooms)
  2. Los Angeles (2,902 rooms)
  3. Austin (2,437 rooms)
  4. Atlanta (2,337 rooms)

“New York City is positioned for a post-COVID supply boom,” said Carter Wilson, STR’s senior VP of consulting, in a written statement. “The market has the largest number of in-construction projects along with the highest number of temporarily closed hotel rooms. As all this supply enters and re-enters the market, it’s definitely going to add pressure to recovering occupancy levels.”

The number of rooms currently in construction in the U.S. is down roughly 32,000 from the country’s all-time construction peak (220,207 rooms in April 2020). In all, 188,929 rooms are under construction, 265,235 rooms are in planning, and 200,978 rooms are in final planning.

“While the number of rooms under construction continues to decline year over year, those in final planning have actually increased for two consecutive months,” Wilson said. “The same is true for rooms in the planning stage, although rooms in this phase are the least likely to reach fruition. The Federal Reserve has set a soft date for interest rate increases, so developers looking for low rates may push for loans over the next two years.”

Source: AM:PM

Related Stories

2021 Will Be the Summer of the “Micro-cation,” Allianz Says

STR: Australia’s Latest Lockdowns Curtail Hotel Bookings

Stats: 85 Percent of Americans Are Optimistic About Travel

TSA Sees Highest Number of Passengers Since Before Pandemic