Lodging Econometrics Reports On Global Hotel Development

According to Lodging Econometrics’ (LE) latest analysis, 2024 could turn out to be the greatest year for meetings in the history of the hotel business.

As a result of the world finally pulling out of the pandemic and people convening once again, paired with the ongoing rebound of business travel, visitor bureaus and convention centers have reported that conference space bookings are at an all-time high this year.

Here, we look at some of the key findings from LE’s most recent global insights, which were highlighted in a webinar led by Bruce Ford, senior vice president and director of global business development at LE.

The Q4 2023 report found that there are 15,197 hotels in the pipeline, with a total of 2.368 million guestrooms—making it a peak on guestrooms since LE began tracking the global pipeline in 2008.

The global active pipeline of rooms broken by chainscale (including projects under construction, commencing in the next 12 months, and in early planning) is as follows: 

• Luxury: 230,033 total rooms / 5,922 rooms to open in 2024 
• Upper upscale: 448,175 / 12,903 
• Upscale: 706,248 / 18,108
• Upper midscale: 640,792 / 13,963
• Midscale: 227,007 / 7,533
• Economy: 90,465 / 2,456
• Casino: 25,295 / 2,150
• Unbranded: 277,723 / 11,297

More than half (123,445) of the hotel rooms in the new luxury pipeline are already in the ground, signaling that luxury construction will likely begin to trend down as these hotels open, with LE foreseeing a slowdown in the next two years. The same trend is forecasted for upper upscale projects with 448,175 total rooms in the pipeline, and roughly 230,000 rooms already under construction. 

While luxury and upper upscale construction is expected to slow, other chainscales will pick up the pipeline. This is evidenced by the rate of upscale and upper midscale construction, which comprises a combined 1.4 million guestrooms of the 2.3 million total global pipeline. Midscale also continues to rise as it now has more than 227,000 rooms in the new construction pipeline and is growing the fastest of the chainscales. 

There are already a total of 6,160 projects under construction, with a total of 1,096,748 rooms, across the globe. Broken down by region: 

• United States: 1,118 projects under construction / 141,768 rooms 
• Other Americas: 304 projects / 51, 642 rooms 
• Middle East: 309 projects / 83,308 rooms 
• Africa: 108 projects / 18,202 rooms 
• Europe: 755 projects / 115,300 rooms 
• Asia Pacific: 3,566 projects / 686,528 rooms

Stay tuned for Hospitality Design’s February/March issue (coming out next week!), where we take a closer look at hotel development around the globe.

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