U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Drops 20.7% Year-over-year in November

---

According to the November 2010 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report, the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 3,174 projects totaling 330,920 rooms.

This represents a 20.7-percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to November 2009. 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.

"The South Atlantic region reported the most rooms under construction (12,449 rooms)," said Lana Yoshii, VP of content management at STR. "However, the Middle Atlantic region is expecting the highest supply percentage growth (2.3 percent) from projects under construction. Other stages of active pipeline development in the Middle Atlantic continue to be robust with a projected 12.9 percent increase in supply should all active pipeline projects come to fruition. The West South Central follows with a proposed 8.7-percent supply increase from active pipeline projects. Time will tell if and when these projects in various development planning stages will open."

Among the nine U.S. geographical regions, the New England region reported the largest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline in year-over-year comparisons, falling 63 percent to 5,818 rooms, followed by the Mountain region (-36 percent with 27,710 rooms) and the Pacific region (-29 percent with 38,662 rooms). The Middle Atlantic region reported the smallest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 7 percent to 55,872 rooms.

U.S. pipeline by region (rooms and percent change November 2010 vs. November 2009):

---