U.S. hotel pipeline falls below 400K rooms

Hotels performed better than expected in the first quarter, registering gains in both demand and occupancy rates, according to a national market report from research firm Lodging Econometrics (see the full report below). But while operations data showed improvement, sales transactions involving U.S. hotels were fewer and further between than in the first quarter of 2009, and the number of hotels in the construction pipeline fell to 3,394 projects, or 396,797 rooms. It is the first time in four years that the construction pipeline is below 400,000 rooms. Lodging Econometrics has predicted that 80,830 new hotel rooms will come online this year, down 55 percent from 2009. TRD

Lodging Econometrics