March 28, 2017 – PORTSMOUTH, NH – The Lodging Econometrics (LE) Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report stated that the Total Pipeline ended 2016 with 11,776 Projects/1,962,676 Rooms, up 6% by projects Year-Over-Year (YOY). There were 5,504 Projects/1,012,987 Rooms Under Construction, up 4% by projects YOY. Projects Scheduled to Start Construction in the Next 12 Months, at 3,675 Projects/516,709 Rooms, were up a strong 21% while projects in Early Planning at 2,597 Projects/432,980 Rooms were down 7% by projects.

The leading franchise companies in the Global Construction Pipeline by project-count are: Marriott International with 2,190 Projects/368,077 Rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 1,841 Projects/283,326 Rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,351 Projects/209,208 Rooms and Choice Hotels with 488 Projects/42,933 Rooms. The leading brands for each of these companies are: Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 342 Projects/35,703 Rooms, Hilton’s Hampton Inn with 489 Projects/57,222 Rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 602 Projects/73,282 Rooms, and Choice’s Comfort Inn with 117 Projects/11,239 Rooms.

The top countries by room-count are the United States with 598,688 Rooms/4,960 Projects and China with 525,640 Rooms/2,340 Projects. The U.S. accounts for 30% of the rooms in the Global Pipeline while China accounts for 27%, resulting in 57% of the Global Pipeline being concentrated in just two countries.

The cities with the largest pipeline room counts are: Dubai with 32,899 Rooms/117 Projects, New York with 30,541 Rooms/192 Projects, Seoul with 30,456 Rooms/154 Projects, Shanghai with 23,252 Rooms/125 Projects and Sanya with 22,629 Rooms/60 Projects.