STR Reports U.S. Hotel Pipeline for April 2009

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(News Source: Smith Travel Research)

(HENDERSONVILLE, TN) -- The total active U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 5,033 projects with 533,568 rooms, according to the April 2009 STR/TWR/Dodge Construction Pipeline Report released this week. This represents a 19.7-percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to April 2008. 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 number of rooms in the active pipeline continues to fall, down 3.3 percent from last month and 19.7 percent when compared to April 2008," said Duane Vinson, vice president of content management at STR. "We are seeing deterioration in all phases of development. For the month, 172 projects with over 19,000 rooms have moved into Deferment or full Abandonment.

"The majority of rooms in the pipeline continue to be in the Upscale and Midscale without Food and Beverage segments. With more than 60 percent of the projects in the In-Construction phase falling into these two chain scales, Vinson continued.

The seven chain-scale segments reported mixed results in the number of rooms in the In-Construction phase when reported in year-over-year measurements. The Independent segment reported the largest decrease of rooms in the In-Construction phase, down 43.6 percent to 25,802 rooms. The Economy segment also reported a large decrease, falling 25.9 percent to 7,295 rooms in the In-Construction phase. The Upper-Upscale segment followed with a 25.0-percent decrease of rooms in the In-Construction phase to 17,209 rooms. The Midscale-with-Food-and-Beverage segment reported the only increase, up 2.3 percent to 9,547 rooms in the In-Construction phase.

"The number of rooms in the Luxury and Upper-Upscale segments is up slightly over last month, 1.5 percent and 1.6 percent respectively; however, both show sharp declines in the Planning phase," Vinson said. "Luxury segment rooms are off 34.4 percent, and the Upper-Upscale segment is down 21.7 percent from last month."

U.S. pipeline by chain-scale segment (number of rooms and percent change April 2009 vs. April 2008):

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