Hotel construction grew to an all-time high in the first quarter of 2024, a trend that continued and expanded into the second.

2024 has been a good, dare we say great, year for hotel constructions. Lodging Econometrics’ Q2 2024 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report  shows substantial growth in U.S. hotel construction, with 6,035 projects (a 9% year-over-year increase) and 713,151 rooms (an 8% y/y increase) in the pipeline—an all-time high in both.

The numbers are part of a global hotel construction boom, with 15,453 projects totaling 2,395,726 rooms in the pipeline: a 6% y/y increase in projects, and a 4% y/y increase in rooms.

The United States and China make up the lion’s share of those numbers, with the United States leading the way at 39% of the projects over China’s 25%.  The top five cities with the highest growth are Dallas, Atlanta, Chengdu (China), Shanghai (China) and California’s Inland Empire.

Upscale, upper-midscale and midscale chains hold sway over the projects, making up 65% of the projects globally, while upscale and upper-midscale comprise 60% of projects in the United States. This trend affirms industry leaders’ predictions of growth taking place in the upper-rated chains.

Lodging Econometrics expects the boom to carry through the next few years, with 2,756 hotels expected to open worldwide in 2025 (779 in the United States), and another 2,812 in 2026 (928 in the United States). However, there are election year and possible global instability uncertainties that must be taken into account.

While these hotels are expected to take advantage of upper income families taking a more expansive track in travel and spending patterns, economy hotels are expected to be negatively impacted by lower- and middle-income families pulling back on theirs.