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Hotel developers are working feverishly to meet surging demand across the U.S. and this year promises to be a tremendous year of growth in the industry.
According to hotel research firm STR, approximately 865 hotels comprising roughly 103,230 rooms are currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2016.
"Post-2009, lenders in the hotel space got very skittish. But the industry continues to break records on the demand side and on the revenue side," explained STR senior vice president of lodging insights Jan Freitag via USA Today. "Developers are playing catch up, and we're seeing a lot of attention on the U.S. lodging industry."
While the 1.5 percent rise in room openings this year is below the long-term annual average of 1.9 percent, per Freitag, 21 percent more rooms are under construction in 2016 compared to last year.
Based on STR's data, New York, Houston and Dallas are the top cities for hotel room construction in 2016.
The Big Apple has 13,583 rooms under construction this year and is poised to add to its 117,367 existing rooms. Meanwhile, 6,169 rooms are set to undergo construction in Houston this year. As a result, Houston is on pace to surpass Dallas in existing rooms, as the latter will see 4,361 rooms built in 2016.
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; Miami-Hialeah, Florida; Chicago; Orlando and Boston will be the next busiest U.S. destinations this year in terms of hotel construction, each with between 2,339 and 4,240 rooms under construction in 2016.
Breaking it down by hotel companies, Marriott International is eyeing a big year with a projected 360 hotels set to open in the U.S. and Canada in 2016. Marriott's chief development officer of North America, Select Service and Extended Stay Brands Eric Jacobs told USA Today the figure represents a "record number of openings."
Hilton Worldwide won't be far behind, though, with the McLean, Virginia-based company set to open 270 hotels comprising more than 30,000 rooms in 2016.
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