U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Dips in May

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According to the May 2011 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report, the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 2,965 projects totaling 310,762 rooms.

This represents a 3.6-percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to May 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.

"Rooms under construction remain a scant 1.0 percent of the existing hotel room inventory (nearly 50,000 rooms under construction vs. 4.88 million existing rooms)," said Brad Garner, COO at STR. "Only the South and Middle Atlantic regions are noteworthy, together accounting for more 40 percent of rooms in construction. The Pre-Planning phase remains light as well, with a 2.4-percent increase over the existing room base through May. The Mountain and South Atlantic regions contributed the most rooms in this stage, each adding more than 20 percent of rooms to the total number of rooms in the highly speculative Pre-Planning phase of the supply pipeline through May."

Among the nine geographical regions of the U.S., the West South Central region reported a 54.5-percent decrease in rooms in construction with 8,247, reporting the largest decrease among the regions. Two other regions experienced decreases in the number of rooms in the In Construction phase of more than 30 percent: the Pacific region (-33.8 percent with 3,508 rooms under construction) and the New England region (-32.9 percent with 912 rooms).

The New England region ended the month with the largest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 23.4 percent with 9,276 rooms, followed by the Mountain region (-20.3 percent with 26,156 rooms in the total active pipeline) and the South Atlantic region (-17.3 percent with 74,965 rooms).

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

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