As seen in the Lodging Econometrics (LE) 2021 year-end Construction Pipeline Trend Report for Latin America, the total hotel construction pipeline at the end of the fourth quarter stands at 563 projects/101,523 rooms. The region’s pipeline experienced an 11% decline in projects and a 7% decrease in rooms, year-over-year (YOY) in Q4.
At the close of Q4 ‘21, projects under construction stand at 281 projects/58,813 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 147 projects/20,732 rooms. Projects in the early planning stage stand at 135 projects/21,978 rooms. New projects announced into the pipeline during 2021 were up 4% by projects, but down 1% by rooms YOY with 139 projects/27,811 rooms compared to the 150 projects/20,522 rooms announced in 2020.
The top five countries for hotel construction in Latin America are Mexico with 207 projects/38,671 rooms. Brazil, which historically has had the largest construction pipeline in the region, saw record low project and room totals in Q4 with 97 projects/15,901 rooms. Following Brazil is Peru, with 32 projects/3,903 rooms, then the Dominican Republic with 21 projects/4,874 rooms, and Columbia stands at 19 projects/2,913 rooms. Collectively, these five countries account for 67% of projects and 65% of rooms in the region’s total pipeline.
At Q4 2021, cities in Latin America with the largest pipelines include Mexico City, Mexico, with 23 projects/3,291 rooms; Lima, Peru, with 22 projects/2,977 rooms; Cancun, Mexico, with 19 projects/10,216 rooms; Guadalajara, Mexico, with 19 projects/2,520 rooms; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, with 14 projects/2,690 rooms.
Hotel franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines in Latin America are Marriott International with 103 projects/16,200 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 102 projects/15,716 rooms, Accor with 81 projects/10,281 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 58 projects/6,686 rooms, and Hyatt Hotels with 33 projects/8,192 rooms. These five companies account for 67% of the projects in the total construction pipeline at Q4 ‘21 and are forecast to see the highest number of new hotel openings in 2022 and 2023.
Leading brands in the pipeline are Accor’s Ibis brand with 57 projects/7,165 rooms, Hilton Garden Inn with 24 projects/3,290 rooms, and Hampton by Hilton with 22 projects/2,669 rooms. These are followed by Hyatt’s AMR Collection with 13 projects/4,637 rooms and IHG’s Holiday Inn Express brand with 13 projects/1,538 rooms.
Twenty-eight new hotels accounting for 4,737 rooms opened in the fourth quarter. For all of 2021, a total of 88 new hotels/14,929 rooms opened in Latin America, bringing the region’s supply count of open and operating hotels to 11,256 hotels/1,192,964 rooms at the end of 2021. Looking ahead, LE analysts expect the number of new hotel openings in Latin America to increase to 114 new hotels with 20,878 rooms in 2022, and in 2023, the region is forecast to open 131 new hotels with 20,427 rooms.