U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Dips 12% Year-Over-Year in August

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According to the August 2011 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report, the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 2,951 projects totaling 315,668 rooms.

This represents a 12.4-percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to August 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.

Among the U.S. regions, three reported an increase of 20 percent or more in rooms under construction: Pacific (+38.9 percent with 4,260 rooms); East South Central (+32.2 percent with 3,611 rooms); and West North Central (+31.5 percent with 3,418 rooms). The Mountain region fell 45.7 percent to 3,158 rooms in the In Construction phase, followed by the West South Central region with a 43.8-percent decrease to 7,812 rooms in the In Construction phase.

"We continue to see a high number of rooms under construction in key U.S. markets such as New York, Orlando, Miami and Washington, D.C., that are adding to new supply in their respective regions," said Duane Vinson, VP of client services at STR. "If you look at the number of projects (and rooms) in the overall Active Pipeline, however, it shows activity has slowed significantly in all areas."

The Pacific region reported the largest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 20.3 percent to 35,240 rooms, followed by the East North Central region (-14.6 percent with 24,517 rooms) and the East South Central region (-13.6 percent with 20,177 rooms).

No U.S. regions showed positive growth in the pipeline.

U.S. pipeline by region (rooms and percent change August 2011 vs. August 2010):

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