Lodging Econometrics has released a report showing that the number of hotels under development in Asia Pacific (excluding China) is at an all-time high, totaling 1,738 properties with 367,886 rooms.
There are presently 943 hotels with a total of 211,361 rooms in the pipeline's development stages, and another 389 hotels with a total of 77,390 rooms are slated to break ground within the next 12 months. Over the last four quarters, these two phases have attained their apexes. 406 hotels with 79,135 rooms are in the preliminary stages of planning, which reached a peak far sooner in 2015 than expected.
As the current development cycle slows, the pipeline is likely to shrink in 2019. Building activity has been on the decline for six consecutive quarters, and the number of forthcoming hotels has also been falling for five consecutive quarters. When trying to predict the pipeline's future course, these two parameters matter the most.
At the end of the third quarter, 274 new hotels had opened in the Asia Pacific region, providing a total of 48,822 rooms; another 71 new hotels, providing another 11,764 rooms, are projected to open in the fourth quarter, bringing the total prediction for new hotel openings in 2018 to 345. The LE estimate is for the opening of 388 hotels with a total of 70,037 rooms in 2019, and 406 hotels with a total of 79,072 rooms in 2020. These numbers would be the highest since LE began tracking in 2007.
In Whose Name Are They Constructing Where
With 400 hotels and 67,977 rooms, Indonesia has 23 percent of Asia Pacific's total pipeline and ranks first on the list of countries with the largest pipelines in Asia Pacific (excluding China). The pipeline in Indonesia was ranked third in the world by LE in September, only behind the United States and Canada.
India follows with its 222 hotels and 33,785 rooms. IHG and Samhi formed a joint venture last year to convert 14 existing and future hotels in India, totaling about 2,000 rooms, to the Holiday Inn Express brand. Three hotels, located in Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Pune, opened into business in the fall.
The country with the second-most hotels and rooms is Japan, with 203 and 41,816 respectively. This year, Okura Nikko Hotel Management contracted with Meieki Management to run the Nikko Style Nagoya when it debuts in 2020, while IHG announced that the Kimpton Tokyo Shinjuku would debut in the same year.
After these nations, Thailand has the most hotels and rooms with 143 and 33,855. Since September, three major hotel chains have announced their intentions to enter the Phuket market: Mandarin Oriental will open a 105-room resort on the island's west coast in 2022, Best Western will introduce its BW Premier Collection to the city in 2020, and Radisson will open a Park Inn in Phuket Town in the same year.
While this is happening, 132 hotels and 34,853 rooms are planned for Malaysia. Meliá Hotels International, a Spanish hotel chain, recently struck an agreement to open the Innside Kuala Lumpur Cheras as part of an integrated development project in the country's capital. Hyatt Hotels Corporation and property developer UEM Sunrise Berhad introduced the Hyatt brand to the extended-stay hotel market in Malaysia and Southeast Asia with the opening of the Hyatt House Kuala Lumpur, Mont'Kiara the previous week.
Jakarta, Indonesia, has the most hotels planned to be built (18,820 rooms) of any city in Asia and the Pacific. Following closely after with 62 hotels and 15,572 rooms is Tokyo, Japan. Seoul, South Korea, has 74 hotels. The next two largest cities in terms of number of hotels and number of rooms are Bangkok (50 hotels with 11,662 rooms) and Kuala Lumpur (49 hotels with 12,929 rooms).
Top Brands, Top Corporations
For example, AccorHotels has 248 hotels and 53,196 rooms, Marriott International has 198 hotels and 45,870 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group has 148 hotels and 33,177 rooms, setting a new record high for the company. Together, these three franchise companies account for 40 percent of guestrooms in the total construction pipeline. Next in line is Hilton, with 85 hotels and 18,978 guest rooms.
Excluding China, AccorHotels' Ibis brand has 62 hotels and 12,440 rooms while Novotel has 48 hotels and 10,807 rooms in the construction pipeline throughout Asia Pacific. There are 33 Courtyard hotels with a total of 6,697 rooms owned and operated by Marriott International, while 24 traditional Marriott Hotels feature a total of 6,533 rooms. There are 57 Holiday Inns with 13,715 rooms and 34 Holiday Inn Expresses with 6,838 rooms owned by IHG, whereas there are 30 DoubleTrees with 6,368 rooms and 27 Hilton Hotel & Resorts with 6,919 rooms owned by Hilton. Full-service hotel chains Marriott Hotels and Hilton Hotels & Resorts are both experiencing record-breaking success.
