Economy and Luxury Hotels Grow Significantly in 2015

The past year has seen a booming hotel industry, with half a million rooms under construction in the United States, with the most growth in the economy and luxury sectors.

There has been a 21.9% year-over-year increase in the number of rooms under construction, according to STR’s October 2015 Pipeline Report, and a 12.7% increase in the number of rooms under contract, which includes projects in construction, final planning, and planning states.

Upscale and Upper Midscale chains continue to rule overall construction, representing more than two-thirds of the U.S. total. But the Upper Upscale, Upscale and Upper Midscale segments each showed a roughly 80% or higher spike in rooms in Final Planning, indicating “more construction in those segments is on the way,” the report said.

Economy hotels saw the largest increase, with an increase of 63.5% in rooms under contract, followed by luxury chains, which increased by 30%.