There are 688 hotels totalling 175,574 rooms Under Contract in the Middle East/Africa region. This represents a 19.1% increase in rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014. In Europe, among the Chain Scale segments, the Upscale segment accounted for the largest portion of rooms in Under Contract (25.3% with 32,900 rooms).
There are 800 hotels totalling 130,093 rooms Under Contract in Europe, according to the August 2015 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report. This represents an 8.8% decrease in rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014 and a 5.9% year-over-year decrease in rooms under construction. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage.
Among the Chain Scale segments, the Upscale segment accounted for the largest portion of rooms in Under Contract (25.3% with 32,900 rooms). Two other segments each accounted for more than 15.0% of rooms in Under Contract: the Upper Midscale segment (23.2% with 30,163 rooms) and the Unaffiliated segment (15.8% with 20,540 rooms).
The Upscale segment also made up the largest portion of rooms under construction (30.9% with 16,628 rooms), followed by the Upper Midscale segment (19.4% with 10,426 rooms) and the Upper Upscale segment (17.6% with 9,447 rooms).
Middle East/Africa hotel pipeline
There are 688 hotels totalling 175,574 rooms Under Contract in the Middle East/Africa region. This represents a 19.1% increase in rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014 and a 38.5% year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage.
The region reported 97,553 rooms in 378 hotels under construction for the month.
Among the countries in the region, Saudi Arabia reported the most rooms under construction with 28,745 rooms in 68 hotels. United Arab Emirates followed with 23,821 rooms in 90 hotels. Qatar (7,315 rooms in 30 hotels) was the only other country in the region to report more than 5,000 rooms In Construction.
US hotel pipeline
There are 3,671 projects totaling 439,844 rooms Under Contract in the United States. This represents a 12.4% increase in the number of rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014 and a 21.6% year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage.
Among the Chain Scale segments, the Luxury segment reported the largest year-over-year increase in rooms Under Contract, rising 55.9% to 11,434 rooms. The Economy segment followed with a 40.2% increase to 6,624 rooms.
The Unaffiliated segment (-15.8% to 88,672 rooms) reported the only decrease in the number of rooms Under Contract.
All segments reported a double-digit increase in rooms under construction with the exception of Upper Upscale (+5.1% to 11,537 rooms) and Midscale (-0.3% to 4,438 rooms). Three of the segments reported an increase of more than 30.0%, led by the Luxury segment (+63.5% to 5,927 rooms).
“With the 63.5% year-over-year increase, Luxury chains now account for 4.5% of total U.S. hotel room construction compared to just over 3.0% last August,” said Bobby Bowers, STR’s senior VP for operations. “And while the year-over-year percentage changes were not as great, Upscale and Upper Midscale chains continue to dominate room construction with more than two-thirds of the U.S. total. Upper Midscale and Upscale rooms in the Final Planning stage also increased by roughly 70.0% and 76.0%, respectively, providing further evidence that those two segments will continue their dominance of U.S. development activity.”
Central/South America hotel pipeline
There are 427 hotels totalling 67,266 rooms Under Contract in the Central/South America region. This represents a 4.7% decrease in rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014 and a 12.8% year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage. The region reported 30,501 rooms in 186 hotels under construction for the month.
Among the region’s key markets, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, reported the largest number of rooms under construction with 4,501 rooms. São Paulo, Brazil (1,370 rooms), and Panama City, Panama (1,076 rooms), were the only other markets to end the month with more than 1,000 rooms under construction.
Caribbean/Mexico hotel pipeline for August
There are 163 hotels totaling 28,431 rooms Under Contract in the Caribbean/Mexico region. This represents a 2.9% increase in rooms Under Contract compared with August 2014 and a 1.9% year-over-year increase in rooms under construction. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage. The region reported 67 hotels totaling 12,987 rooms under construction for the month. Among the region’s key markets, Central Mexico (3,408 rooms) reported the largest number of rooms under construction, followed by Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico (2,701 rooms).
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
