Hotel construction pipeline up 20.9% in June, led by luxury developments

As of June, the total number of rooms under contract in the United States has increased 11.1% compared to June 2014, according to a Hotel News Now story on the STR Pipeline Report.

The rise comes out to 3,511 projects, totaling 426,043 rooms. As for rooms in construction, the rate is 20.9% (128,734 rooms) during that same time frame.

Broken down into segments, several areas are booming in terms of rooms under contract. The luxury segment leads all chain scales with a 46.5% increase, and the upper upscale, upper midscale, and midscale sectors are all up more than 15% since last June.

Upscale and upper midscale are the two largest divisions in the stage, containing more than 125,000 rooms each, for 266,867 rooms total under contract. The figures in the category include projects the in construction, final planning and planning phases but not in the unconfirmed stage.

The rates are even greater for rooms in the in construction stage. The luxury segment is up 57.3% at 5,468 rooms. Upper upscale, upscale, upper midscale, economy, and unaffiliated have all seen double-digit increases.

The only segments with negative change are unaffiliated and economy in the under contract category (-21.0% and -12.9%, respectively) and midscale in the in construction category (-13.8%).