The Q1 2024 Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE) reveals that the total global pipeline hit an all-time high for room counts and highlights a significant increase in full-service projects at the close of the first quarter. LE analysts report that, at Q1, the total global pipeline stands at 15,366 projects/2,382,195 rooms, a 6% increase in projects, and a 3% increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).

There are 6,195 projects/1,101,602 rooms currently under construction worldwide at Q1. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 3,840 projects/528,251 rooms, for an 8% increase by projects and a 5% increase by rooms YOY. Projects and rooms in the early planning stage are at all-time highs and stand at 5,331 projects/752,342 rooms at the Q1 close, increasing 12% and 9% YOY, respectively.

Notably, full-service branded and unbranded projects have experienced a resurgence, dominating the pipeline at Q1. At the close of the first quarter, luxury hotel projects and room counts reached record highs of 1,215 projects/239,744 rooms, a 12% increase by projects and a 6% increase by rooms YOY, upper upscale closed Q1 with 1,999 projects/445,207 rooms, up 7% by projects and 5% by rooms YOY, upscale hotel projects stand at a record 4,093 projects with 711,510 rooms, up 7% by projects and 4% by rooms YOY, and casinos increased 6% by projects and 3% by rooms YOY to stand at 53 projects/25,023 rooms.

Globally, the countries with the greatest number of full-service projects in the total pipeline at Q1 are led by the United States with 2,272 projects/341,854 rooms, accounting for 41% of the projects in the total global full-service pipeline, then China with 1,688 projects/414,323 rooms. Distantly following is India with 334 projects/46,586 rooms. Next is Saudi Arabia with 270 projects/62,744 rooms, and Vietnam with 186 projects/61,426 rooms. These five countries combined, account for 86% of the full-service projects in the total global pipeline.

Leading cities, worldwide, with the largest full-service pipeline totals at Q1 are Chengdu, China with 80 projects/21,130 rooms; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with 75 projects/15,025 rooms; Dallas, Texas with 75 projects/10,434 rooms; Los Angeles, California with 68 projects/13,188 rooms, and Shanghai, China with 67 projects/16,569 rooms.

Globally, during the first quarter, 177 new full-service hotels opened, accounting for 32,611 rooms with upscale projects accounting for over 50% of the openings. For the remainder of 2024 and through 2025, LE analysts expect upscale projects to continue to account for the majority of projects to open from the total full-service pipeline. Overall, however, throughout the next three quarters, LE forecasts an additional 952 new full-service hotels/181,148 rooms to open, totaling 1,129 new full-service hotels with 213,759 rooms to open by year-end 2024. Looking ahead, the LE forecast for new hotel openings expects another 1,260 new full-service hotels/244,275 rooms to open worldwide in 2025.