STR Reports US Hotel Pipeline for July 2012

According to the July 2012 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report, the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 2,745 projects totaling 300,954 rooms.

This represents a 6.9% decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to July 2011.

The total active pipeline data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Pre-Planning stage.

"July continues the summer trend of a significant year-over-year increase in rooms in the In Construction phase," said Duane Vinson, VP of database content and integrity at STR. "July posted 61,490 rooms under construction compared to 54,608 last year - a 12.6% increase. When STR released June year-to-date performance, which showed an increase in occupancy of 3.4% and average daily rate gaining momentum at 4.4%, it's easy to understand why hotel companies are eager to open new properties. Not surprisingly, the Upscale and Upper Midscale segments, which have performed remarkably well during the recovery, led all other segments with a 33.3% and 12.0% increase in rooms under construction, respectively ... While construction is up, we're seeing very little change now in the total active pipeline, with a very modest 1.6% increase compared to last month and a 6.9% decline compared to July 2011. The only real movement is with the Upscale and Upper Midscale segments, comprising 55% of the nearly 300,000 rooms in the phases that make up the active pipeline."

Among the Chain Scale segments, the Luxury segment reported the largest growth in rooms in the total active pipeline, increasing 93.1% with 7,951 rooms.

The Economy segment was the only other segment to report an increase in rooms in the total active pipeline, rising 12.2% with 4,088 rooms.

The Upper Upscale segment ended the month with the largest decrease of rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 26.9% with 17,473 rooms.

Overall, the Upper Midscale segment reported the largest number of rooms in the active pipeline with 88,643 rooms.

Three segments reported increases in the rooms under construction of more than 20%: the Economy segment (+40.6% with 1,340 rooms); the Upscale segment (+33.3% with 19,605 rooms); and the Unaffiliated segment (+22.7% with 10,261 rooms).

The Midscale segment reported the largest decrease in rooms under construction, falling 32.1% with 2,403 rooms.

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