U.S. Pipeline +11.2% In October

-- Hotels, 11/16/2008 11:30:00 AM

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—The active U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 5,917 hotels with 647,136 guestrooms, according to the October 2008 STR/TWR/Dodge Construction Pipeline Report released this week. This represents an 11.2-percent increase in the number of guestrooms in the active pipeline over October 2007 (luxury -3.7%; upper upscale -23.8%; upscale +40.2%; midscale w/F&B +29.4; midscle w/o F&B +37.4%; economy +52.6%; unaffiliated -13.6%).

However, the number of guestrooms in the construction phase of the pipeline in October decreased 4.9 percent from October 2007 to 190,395 (1,541 properties). Figures in the report include hotels in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages. They do not include the Pre-Planning stage.

“The number of rooms in construction year-over-year is down 4.9 percent, which is a rather sharp decline from September’s 0.3-percent drop,” said Duane Vinson, vice president, content management for STR. “This decade’s hotel building boom is certainly showing signs of weakening.

“In-Construction numbers for October show a significant slowdown in most chain scales over last year, with the exceptions of the Upscale and Midscale without F&B segments,” he said. “Among the Upscale chains, the Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn by Marriott brands account for 43 percent of the total rooms under way.”

  
According to the report, Hilton Hotels Corporation’s Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express, and Fairfield Inn by Marriott make up 60 percent of the rooms in-construction for the Midscale without Food & Beverage segment, which has the largest number of rooms in the In Construction stage of the pipeline.