The Q4 2025 Global Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics reveals that the global hotel construction pipeline reached a new all-time high project count with 15,922 projects/2,437,354 rooms, a 1 percent increase in projects year over year.
There are 6,140 projects/1,058,945 rooms currently under construction worldwide at Q4 2025. Projects scheduled to start construction anytime in the next 12 months stand at 3,845 projects/553,140 rooms, up 3 percent by rooms year over year.
Projects in the early planning stage reached record highs, standing at 5,937 projects/825,269 rooms, showing significant growth with a 4 percent increase in projects and a 3 percent increase in rooms year over year.
The pipeline for the luxury chain scale reached record highs with 1,328 projects/252,544 rooms, up 8 percent by projects and 4 percent by rooms year over year.
The upper upscale chain scale also achieved record highs with 1,883 projects/391,391 rooms, increasing 9 percent by projects and 4 percent by rooms year over year.
The top two chain scales by project count, upscale and upper midscale combined, total 8,358 projects/1,227,133 rooms, up 1 percent by both projects and rooms year over year.
The top countries by project count continue to be led by the United States with 6,146 projects/720,089 rooms. China follows with 3,608 projects/644,938 rooms. The United States represents 39 percent of the projects in the total global pipeline, while China accounts for 23 percent. Sixty-two percent of the projects in the total global pipeline are concentrated within these two countries.
Notable growth is seen in India, which reached record highs with 906 projects/118,334 rooms, showing remarkable increases of 31 percent by projects and 35 percent by rooms year over year. Saudi Arabia also achieved record highs with 394 projects/106,521 rooms, up 25 percent by projects and 28 percent by rooms year over year.
The cities with the greatest number of projects in the hotel construction pipeline are led by Dallas with 193 projects/23,720 rooms. Atlanta follows with 159 projects/17,804 rooms. Next are the international cities of Chengdu which ranks third with 136 projects/24,216 rooms, followed by Guangzhou with 126 projects/25,329 rooms, and Phoenix which rounds out the top five with 124 projects/16,303 rooms.
Conversion Pipeline
Globally, the conversion pipeline reached record highs with 2,815 projects/341,006 rooms, up 13 percent by projects and 14 percent by rooms year over year. Combined hotel renovations and conversions also achieved record highs, standing at 3,777 projects/540,459 rooms, up 9 percent by projects and 10 percent by rooms year over year.
Regional pipeline project record counts were achieved by the Asia Pacific, excluding China, region with 2,323 projects/433,241 rooms, up 11 percent by projects and 5 percent by rooms year over year, then the Middle East with 710 projects/176,402 rooms, up 15 percent by projects and 13 percent by rooms year over year; and Africa with 312 projects/47,395 rooms, up 11 percent by projects and 9 percent by rooms year over year.
During 2025, 2,371 new hotels opened worldwide, accounting for 325,985 rooms. LE analysts forecast 2,617 new hotels/389,175 rooms to open in 2026, followed by 2,630 new hotels/384,955 rooms to open in 2027.