According to the Q3 2024 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics, at the close of the quarter, the markets with the largest hotel construction pipelines are led by Dallas with a record-high of 194 projects and 22,803 rooms. The city has dominated the pipeline for the past several quarters.
Dallas is followed by Atlanta with a record-high 166 projects accounting for 19,174 rooms; Nashville with a record-high 130 projects and 16,966 rooms, Phoenix with 123 hotels and 15,999 rooms; and Austin, Texas, with a record-high 119 projects accounting for 13,962 rooms. These top five markets combined account for 732 hotels and 88,904 rooms.
At Q3, five U.S. markets stand out for their active under construction hotel projects. New York leads with 42 hotels and 6,771 rooms, followed by Dallas with 30 hotels and 3,443 rooms. Atlanta is third with 26 hotels and 3,001 rooms, while Phoenix and Nashville follow with 25 hotels and 4,522 rooms and 23 hotels and 3,269 rooms, respectively.
Dallas, with 73 hotels and 8,708 rooms, has the most projects scheduled to start in the next 12 months. Following Dallas are Atlanta with 62 hotels and 7,708 rooms, California’s Inland Empire with 57 hotels and 5,670 rooms, Phoenix with 55 hotels and 6,620 rooms and Austin with 49 hotels and 5,797 rooms.
Dallas also tops the list of markets with the most hotel projects in the early planning stage at Q3 with 91 projects that will add 10,652 rooms. Atlanta follows with 78 projects set to bring 8,465 rooms, while Nashville has 64 projects totaling 7,885 rooms. Austin and Los Angeles round out the top five, with Austin at 55 hotels and 6,434 rooms and Los Angeles at 51 hotels and 8,491 rooms.
Renovations and Conversions
In the third quarter, LE recorded a combined U.S. renovation and conversion total of 1,969 active projects with 262,048 rooms. The markets with the largest combined number of renovations and conversions at Q3 are Chicago with 34 hotels and 7,704 rooms, Atlanta with 31 hotels and 4,557 rooms, Phoenix with 29 hotels and 5,267 rooms, Washington, D.C.-MD-VA with 29 hotels and 4,452 rooms and Los Angeles with 28 hotels and 4,468 rooms.
Four hundred and one new project announcements, accounting for 42,413 rooms, were announced during the third quarter. At Q3, Dallas, with 15 hotels and 1,549 rooms, has the largest number of new projects announced into the pipeline, followed by Atlanta with 11 hotels and 1,104 rooms, Austin with nine hotels and 909 rooms, Nashville with 8 hotels and 1,142 rooms, and Fort Worth-Arlington with 7 hotels and 1,145 rooms.
According to LE analysts, 408 new hotels with 48,258 rooms opened in the U.S. through Q3 2024. Of these openings, 67 percent of hotels (60 percent of rooms) were in suburban locations, and 47 percent of hotels (54 percent of rooms) were in the top 50 markets.
Looking Ahead
The LE forecast for new hotel openings for the remainder of 2024 in the U.S. includes an additional 223 hotels with 23,902 rooms, bringing the year-end 2024 projection to 631 new hotels with 72,160 rooms to open. The New York market is forecast to open 20 new hotels with 2,181 rooms, followed by Atlanta and Dallas each with 16 new hotels (2,898 and 2,045 rooms respectively), Orlando with 13 new hotels and 2,398 rooms, and Indianapolis with 12 new hotels and 1,347 rooms.
LE forecasts 759 new hotel openings with 86,264 rooms in 2025 and 938 new hotel openings with 101,017 rooms in 2026. For 2025, New York leads with 23 new hotels and 3,147 rooms forecast to open, followed by Nashville and Dallas each with 18 new hotels (2,463 and 1,820 rooms respectively), Phoenix with 17 new hotels and 2,864 rooms, and Inland Empire with 16 new hotels and 1,530 rooms. In 2026, LE analysts forecast 938 new hotels and 101,017 rooms to open in the U.S.