As we move into a new decade, the hotel industry is “a shining star” in the commercial real estate sector, says Bruce Ford, senior vice president, and director of global business development for Lodging Econometrics. “There’s nothing on the horizon that says the hotel industry is going to contaminate itself.” That includes the ever-looming threat of tariffs. “The fluctuation causes people not to act,” says Ford. “They’re not in a rush to make a mistake, so they decide not to decide.” But this has contributed to widespread delays in openings, from 60 to 100 days for the upscale, midscale, and select-service segments to up to five months for full-service, luxury, upper-upscale, and casino categories.
While growth is happening globally from Saudi Arabia to Mexico, the U.S. is the clear leader in terms of projects and rooms. California, for instance, has 699 projects in construction, with almost 97,000 guestrooms. “There is no country anywhere else in the world other than the U.S. and China that has as many rooms in the pipeline as the state of California,” Ford says.
