A hotel development boom is sweeping the nation; 865 new hotels with a total of 103,230 guest rooms are expected to open in 2016. Hotel Research Firm STR has selected the top 10 cities for hotel development in 2016.
According to STR, New York City is slated to gain 13,583 new guest rooms in 2016—the most of any city in the United States. Houston comes in at No. 2, with 6,169 guest rooms under construction, and Dallas is close behind with 4,361. The rest of the top 10, in descending order, is Los Angeles; followed by Greater Washington, DC; Las Vegas; Greater Miami; Chicago; Orlando and Boston.
While Detroit did not make the list, the comeback city has an impressive 954 guest rooms scheduled to open in 2016, with 4,200 rooms in the pipeline.
Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights for STR, reports 21 percent more rooms are under construction in 2016, compared to a year ago. Experts suggest that the spike in hotel development is due to an improving economy, coupled with strong demand.
Marriott International will be particularly active in 2016. Under its umbrella of 19 brands, it will open more than 360 hotels in North America. Hyatt is unveiling new Hyatt Place, Hyatt House and Hyatt Regency hotels in Houston; Chicago; Denver; Emeryville, Calif.; and Asheville, North Carolina; and a new Andaz in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hilton Worldwide, which operates 12 different brands, will debut more than 30,000 guest rooms in 270 hotels across the nation in 2016. Most of the properties will be new-construction, limited-service hotels that can go up quickly and start showing an immediate return on investment.
