STR Reports 11.1 Percent Decline in U.S. Hotel Pipeline

STR Reports 11.1 Percent Decline in U.S. Hotel Pipeline

The total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 3,118 projects totaling 327,693 rooms, according to the February 2011 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report. This represents an 11.1 percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to February 2010. The total active pipeline data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages, but does not include projects in the Pre-Planning stage.

“Of the nine U.S. geographic regions, the South Atlantic region has 23 percent of the U.S. hotel room supply,” said Lana Yoshii, vice president of content management at STR. “Not surprisingly, this region has the highest percentage of rooms under construction (23 percent) in the country, followed by the Middle Atlantic (21 percent) and the West South Central (19 percent). The region with the lowest activity of construction projects is New England, with only 885 rooms in construction.”

Among the U.S. regions, New England experienced the largest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 35.1 percent with 9.281 rooms. The region also had the smallest number of rooms in the total active pipeline. The Mountain region (down 20.1 percent with 26,136 rooms) and the Pacific region (down 16.1 percent with 39,691 rooms) were the only other regions to report decreases of more than 15 percent in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline. The Middle Atlantic region was the only region to experience an increase in rooms in the total active pipeline, rising 2.5 percent with 58,980 rooms.