According to the Q3 2024 U.S. Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the close of the quarter, the five markets with the largest hotel construction pipelines were led by Dallas with a record-high of 194 projects and 22,803 rooms, followed by Atlanta with a record-high 166 projects accounting for 19,174 rooms, Nashville with a record-high 130 projects and 16,966 rooms, Phoenix with 123 projects/15,999 rooms, and Austin with a record-high 119 projects accounting for 13,962 rooms. These top five markets combined accounted for 732 projects/88,904 rooms.
In Q3, five U.S. markets stood out for their active under-construction hotel projects. New York leads with 42 projects/6,771 rooms, followed by Dallas with 30 projects/3,443 rooms. Atlanta was third with 26 projects/3,001 rooms, while Phoenix and Nashville followed with 25 projects/4,522 rooms and 23 projects/3,269 rooms, respectively.
Dallas, with 73 projects/8,708 rooms, had the most projects scheduled to start in the next 12 months. Following Dallas are Atlanta with 62 projects/7,708 rooms, Inland Empire with 57 projects/5,670 rooms, Phoenix with 55 projects/6,620 rooms, and Austin with 49 projects/5,797 rooms.
Dallas also topped the list of markets with the most hotel projects in the early planning stage in Q3, including 91 projects that will add 10,652 rooms. Atlanta followed with 78 projects set to bring 8,465 rooms, while Nashville had 64 projects totaling 7,885 rooms. Austin and Los Angeles rounded out the top five, with Austin at 55 projects/6,434 rooms and Los Angeles at 51 projects/8,491 rooms.
In the third quarter, LE recorded a combined U.S. renovation and conversion total of 1,969 active projects with 262,048 rooms. The markets with the largest combined number of renovations and conversions in Q3 were Chicago with 34 projects/7,704 rooms, Atlanta with 31 projects/4,557 rooms, Phoenix with 29 projects/5,267 rooms, Washington, DC-MD-VA with 29 projects/4,452 rooms, and Los Angeles with 28 projects/4,468 rooms.
Four hundred one new project announcements (NPAs), accounting for 42,413 rooms, were announced during the third quarter. In Q3, Dallas, with 15 projects/1,549 rooms, had the largest number of new projects announced into the pipeline, followed by Atlanta with 11 projects/1,104 rooms, Austin with 9 projects/909 rooms, Nashville with 8 projects/1,142 rooms, and Fort Worth-Arlington with 7 projects/1,145 rooms.
According to LE analysts, 408 new hotels with 48,258 rooms opened in the United States through Q3 2024. Of these openings, 67 percent of hotels (60 percent of rooms) were in suburban locations, and 47 percent of hotels (54 percent of rooms) were in the top 50 markets.
The LE forecast for new hotel openings for the remainder of 2024 in the United States includes an additional 223 hotels with 23,902 rooms, bringing the year-end 2024 projection to 631 new hotels with 72,160 rooms to open. The New York market is forecast to open 20 new hotels/2,181 rooms, followed by Atlanta and Dallas each with 16 new hotels (2,898 and 2,045 rooms respectively), Orlando with 13 new hotels/2,398 rooms, and Indianapolis with 12 new hotels/1,347 rooms.
Looking ahead, LE forecasts 759 new hotel openings/86,264 rooms in 2025 and 938 new hotel openings/101,017 rooms in 2026. For 2025, New York leads with 23 new hotels/3,147 rooms forecast to open, followed by Nashville and Dallas each with 18 new hotels (2,463 and 1,820 rooms respectively), Phoenix with 17 new hotels/2,864 rooms, and Inland Empire with 16 new hotels/1,530 rooms. In 2026, LE analysts forecast 938 new hotels/101,017 rooms to open in the United States.