Development

Fashion houses, automotive brands, retailers and lifestyle companies are increasingly entering the hotel business—not to compete directly with established hotel operators, but to extend their brands into immersive, real-world experiences. As consumers place greater value on authenticity and lifestyle, hotels are becoming powerful platforms for brand storytelling, customer loyalty and long-term revenue growth.

Each year, HVS researches and compiles development costs from our database of actual hotel construction budgets. This source provides the basis for our illustrated total development costs per room and per product type.

The US hospitality and leisure sector in 2026 is seeing a shift in dealmaking, with fewer but larger transactions focused on premium assets, wellness integration, and digital gaming, while AI readiness and generational demand segmentation play increasingly important roles in investment decisions.

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. has released its first Hospitality Outlook report, which finds that hotel investors are concentrating capital in luxury and upscale leisure properties as new development faces challenges from elevated financing costs and tighter underwriting standards.

The latest report from Colliers reveals the investment patterns in the Canadian hotel industry for the first quarter of 2026, providing insights into the sector’s performance and future prospects.

The Middle East’s hotel construction pipeline reached a record high in the first quarter of 2026, with 717 projects and 177,110 rooms, showing notable growth despite recent regional conflicts, according to Lodging Econometrics.

Europe’s hotel construction pipeline grew to 1,731 projects and 255,354 rooms at the close of Q1 2026, with a record number of projects in the early planning stage and notable growth in both upscale and luxury hotel developments across key countries and cities.

The hotel construction pipeline in the Asia Pacific region, excluding China, reached a record 2,387 projects and 442,973 rooms at the end of Q1 2026, led by India, with strong growth across all segments, according to Lodging Econometrics.

China’s hotel construction pipeline reached 3,602 projects and 640,328 rooms at the end of Q1 2026, with the majority of projects in the under-construction phase and significant growth in both new project announcements and conversions, according to Lodging Econometrics.

The hotel construction pipeline in Latin America grew by 6% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, with significant increases in early planning projects and notable activity in Mexico, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic, according to Lodging Econometrics.