The number of U.S. hotel rooms in construction is down roughly 48,000 from the country’s all-time high in April 2020 (220,207 rooms), according to September 2021 pipeline data from STR.
The final two phases of the pipeline, construction and final planning, are down by double digits from the same time last year while activity in the planning stage has risen significantly. In September 2021, 172,251 rooms were in construction, down 20.3 percent in comparison to September 2020; while the number of rooms in the final planning stage were 205,829, down 17.2 percent from the same time last year. There were 263,673 rooms in the planning stage, which is 41.1 percent higher than that in September last year.
“The impacts of the pandemic and the associated financial bearings have reached the hotel development pipeline, as the number of rooms in the construction phase continues to decline,” said Alison Hoyt, STR’s senior director of consulting, in a press note. “While part of the decrease has come from fewer rooms entering and moving through the pipeline, new openings that were delayed by the pandemic also account for some of the loss. For 2021 as a whole, we’re looking at a higher-than-average influx of new rooms, assuming properties with projected opening dates over the final months of the year open on time. It is more likely that at least some of the projects nearing completion will be delayed to 2022 openings.”
As of October 1, 2021, New York City showed 17,985 rooms in construction. Only five other markets had more than 5,000 rooms in that final phase of the pipeline, which includes Atlanta (5,844 rooms), Los Angeles (5,839 rooms), Nashville (5,251 rooms), Las Vegas (5,195 rooms) and Dallas (5,062 rooms).
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