More hotels and rooms were opened in the United States from 1 March to 30 September than in any other country, even though some existing hotels remain closed or are operating at partial capacity, according to STR.
During that seven-month period, the US opened 521 properties, accounting for 55,395 rooms. Five other countries opened more than 2,000 rooms during this time: China (23,470 rooms), Japan (16,304 rooms), Germany (9,027 rooms), Canada (2,748 rooms) and the UK (2,481 rooms).
For the full year to September, however, project deferrals in the US have significantly increased. In the year to September, projects that were deferred in the US totalled 211, a 56 per cent increase from the same period last year. In addition, 232 projects were abandoned, a 16 per cent year-over-year decrease, though projects are still being moved into that category, according to STR.
"Generally, projects that have already broke ground are going to be finished—but abandonments and deferrals, which are becoming more common, affect the total room count in the pipeline," said STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag. "The movement of projects into these phases is playing into the overall slowing of development activity because there isn't that constant flow of projects from planning to construction, because the record-breaking demand of 2019 isn't there waiting for new hotels to open."
The number of rooms under construction in the US has declined from the country's peak of 220,207 in April. By September, 216,083 rooms were under construction, which still was up 6.1 per cent year over year.