Hotel rooms under construction down in 2021, planning up 38.9%
January 18, 2022 | Kim Slowey | TheConstructionBroadsheet.com
In its most recent analysis of the U.S. hotel construction market, hospitality data and analytics firm STR found that the number of rooms under construction as of Dec. 31, 2021, was down about 61,000 from the country’s all-time high in early 2020.
Total rooms under construction in the U.S. at the end of 2021 numbered 158,906, which is 19.2% lower than at the end of 2020. As for those projects in final planning, the number of rooms fell 20.5% to 185,231.
However, as a possible signal that the industry might be ready to rebound, STR reported that the number of rooms in earlier planning stages increased 38.9% to 284,502 year over year.
“This past year was the second in a row with far fewer rooms in construction and final planning, but the rise in planning activity could be an indicator that the pandemic’s impact on the pipeline will be different than what we saw during the Great Recession,” said Alison Hoyt, STR’s senior director of consulting, in a prepared statement.
