LE: U.S. hotel construction down 'incrementally'

According to Lodging Econometrics’ Construction Pipeline Trend Report for the United States, the total U.S. construction pipeline stood at 5,216 hotels with 650,222 rooms at the end of 2020. Those numbers are down only incrementally, according to the company.

At the end of Q4 2020, the number of hotels under construction stood at 1,487 hotels with 199,700 rooms. Of those, 24 percent of hotels in the pipeline belong to extended-stay brands, a segment of the industry that developers have become increasingly interested in over the last few years, according to LE.

Hotels under construction continue to move toward opening. Through year-end 2020, the U.S. opened 833 hotels accounting for 97,203 rooms, bringing the U.S. supply of open and operating hotels to 58,569 hotels with 5,557,119 rooms. Additionally, of the 833 hotels opened in 2020, 29 percent of those hotels belong to extended-stay brands.

LE is forecasting another 929 hotels with 107,407 rooms to open by the end of 2021. If all of these hotels come to fruition, it will represent a 1.9 percent increase in new hotel supply. For 2022, LE is forecasting 1,031 hotels with 116,749 rooms to open.

Hotels scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months total 2,015 hotels with 234,703 rooms, down 12 percent by hotels and 11 percent by rooms year over year. Hotels in the early planning stage stand at 1,714 hotels with 215,819 rooms, a cyclical high in the number of rooms, and up slightly year over year.

It is also worth noting that renovations and brand conversions are becoming more prevalent, according to LE. At the end of Q4 2020, there were a total 1,308 hotels with 210,124 rooms under renovation or conversion in the U.S. The number of hotels and rooms has grown consistently over the last three quarters of 2020.