NATIONAL REPORT – Through the third quarter, 490 total new (not
net) hotels with 57,479 new rooms opened in the U.S., with another 202
projects/22,368 rooms anticipated to open by year-end 2025, according to
Lodging Econometrics (LE) data. LE projects 2025 to finish with 692 new hotels
with 79,847 rooms and a forecasted growth rate of 1.4%.
Looking ahead and higher than many anecdotal projections, LE
analysts forecast 754 total new hotels/83,118 rooms to open in calendar year
2026 for a 1.5% growth rate. For 2027, LE forecasts 864 total new hotels/91,571
rooms to open for a 1.6% growth rate.
“Lodging Econometrics notes that although the new
construction pipeline continues to see more new announcements the pace of
construction starts have slowed and we continue to see construction timelines
lengthen,” said Senior Vice President, Director,
Global Business Development Bruce Ford. “We have seen a marked
shift to investing in existing hotels as renovation and repositioning will
continue to be a large part of the market dynamics for the next several
quarters.”
The U.S. pipeline at the close of 3Q25 has remained
relatively unchanged year-over-year (YOY) and stands at 6,205 projects/728,416
rooms, holding steady by projects and up 1% by rooms year-over-year, according
to LE.
We have seen a marked shift to investing in existing hotels as renovation and repositioning will continue to be a large part of the market dynamics for the next several quarters.
Bruce Ford
There were 1,118 projects/137,620 rooms under construction.
Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months totaled 2,234
projects/258,973 rooms. Projects in early planning in the U.S. stood at 2,853
projects/331,823 rooms. Year-over-year, both the starts in the next 12-month
stage of the construction pipeline and the early planning stage increased
modestly, while the under-construction stage saw a marginal decline. New
project announcements for the quarter totaled 230 projects/28,951 rooms. Hotel
renovations across the U.S. stood at 566 projects/123,142 rooms at Q3.
LE analysts report that the upper midscale chain scale
continues to have the largest project count in the U.S. pipeline, with 2,279
projects/219,385 rooms. Following is the upscale chain scale with 1,383
projects/172,238 rooms. Together, these two chain scales comprised 59% of all
projects in the total pipeline.
The midscale segment stood at 947 projects/78,956 rooms, up
2% by both projects and rooms YOY. Combined, the top three chain scales by
project count—upper midscale, upscale, and midscale—accounted for 65% of all
projects in the total pipeline.
Extended-stay hotel projects continued to be a significant
component of the U.S. hotel construction pipeline with 2,468 projects/250,754
rooms accounting for 40% of all projects and 34% of all rooms in the pipeline.
Middle tier extended-stay hotels represented the largest
segment with 1,648 projects/154,499 rooms, up 3% by both projects and rooms
YOY. Upper tier extended-stay hotels stood at 653 projects/77,019 rooms. Lower
tier extended-stay accounted for 167 projects/19,236 rooms.
Within the extended-stay segment, 431 projects/45,542 rooms
were under construction at the end of the quarter. Projects scheduled to start
construction in the next 12 months stood at 983 projects/102,064 rooms.
Extended-stay projects in the early planning stage totaled 1,054
projects/103,148 rooms.
Brand conversion activity reached record-high project totals
and closed the quarter with 1,477 projects/148,035 rooms, up 18% by projects
and 22% by rooms YOY. Combined, the total renovation and brand conversion
pipeline in the U.S. stood at 2,043 projects/271,177 rooms, up 4% by projects
and 3% by rooms YOY.