The total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 2,736 projects totaling 293,143 rooms, according to the January 2012 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report.
This represents a 1.6% decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to January 2011. The total active pipeline data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the pre-planning stage.
The U.S. hotel industry reported an increase in rooms under construction of 3.4% with 52,425 rooms compared with January 2011.
“The general sentiment coming from the Americas Lodging Investment Summit last month was one of optimism,” said Duane Vinson, vice president of content management and integrity at STR. “Brand leadership, developers and owners all are poised with plans to once again launch into full development mode once the U.S. economic environment is right. However, with continued economic uncertainty, lending still fairly constricted and virtually no real movement in new project numbers, we can only assume the time is not yet right.”
Among the chain scale segments, the upper upscale segment reported the largest increase in rooms in the total active pipeline, rising 34.1% to 19,786 rooms, followed by the economy segment, up 29.7% to 4,507 rooms and the upscale segment, up 12.6% to 74,267 rooms. The unaffiliated segment reported the most rooms in the total active pipeline with 83,297 rooms.
Three segments ended the month with increases in the number of rooms under construction: the luxury segment up 45.2% with 819 rooms, the upscale segment up 40.9% with 16,594 rooms and the upper upscale segment up 15.5% with 7,622 rooms.