Around 2,000 (1,978 to be precise) hotels debuted in 2023, globally, representing 292,380 rooms, while more than 2,500 hotels are set to open in 2024 and even more in 2025, according to Lodging Econometrics (LE) estimates.
In more detail, out of the 1,978 hotels that opened their doors last year, 636 hotels with 94,559 rooms opened in the fourth quarter.
LE analysts forecast an additional 2,550 new hotels with 389,799 rooms to open in 2024 and another 2,804 new hotels/430,546 rooms in 2025.
Lodging Econometrics’ report(LE) for global hotel construction trends reveals that the hotel construction pipeline reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2023.
At the close of 2023, the hotel construction pipeline stood at 15,196 hotels/2,367,727 rooms, an increase of 7% in hotels and 3% in rooms, compared to the same period in 2022.
In particular, there were 6,160 hotels/1,096,748 rooms under construction worldwide, representing a 2% increase in hotels compared to the previous year.
In the next 12 months, 3,850 hotels/536,588 rooms are scheduled to start construction, showing a 7% increase in hotels and 5% growth in rooms year-on-year.
Hotels and rooms in the initial planning stage were at an all-time high at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 at 5,186 hotels/734,391 rooms, up 12% and 6% year-on-year, respectively.
In addition, the number of projects undergoing renovation and conversion globally was the highest ever, reaching 3,291 projects/510,584 rooms.
The top countries by number of projects were the United States, with an all-time high number of hotels (5,964 hotels/693,963 rooms). The United States was followed by China, which reached an all-time high of 3,788 hotels with 691,772 rooms.
Top countries and cities in hotel construction
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the United States accounted for 39% of hotels in the total global hotel construction pipeline, while China accounted for 25% of hotels, resulting in these two countries accounting for 64% of all global projects. India followed closely behind with 514 hotels/61,075 rooms, the United Kingdom with 322 hotels/43,990 rooms and Saudi Arabia with 300 hotels/72,761 rooms.
Three of the five cities with the highest volume of hotel projects during the fourth quarter of 2023 were in the United States: Dallas, Texas, with 193 hotels/22,291 rooms; Atlanta, with 151 hotels/18,730 rooms; and Nashville, Tennessee, with 123 hotels/16,148 rooms.
Chengdu, in China, was also among the top five cities with 148 hotels/29,575 rooms.
