Brand Conversions Reach a Record-High Project Total in China’s Hotel Construction Pipeline at Q3 2026
China's pipeline holds 3,507 projects and 621,201 rooms at Q3 2026, with brand conversions hitting record highs and over 1,000 new hotels forecast to open by year-end.
In the Q3 2026 China Construction Pipeline Trend Report by Lodging Econometrics (LE), at the close of the quarter, China’s total hotel construction pipeline stands at 3,507 projects with 621,201 rooms.
There are 2,482 projects/433,183 rooms under construction in China. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months total 348 projects/59,386 rooms and projects in early planning stand at 677 projects/128,632 rooms.
The upper midscale chain scale leads China’s pipeline with 1,264 projects/185,074 rooms, accounting for 36% of projects and 30% of rooms in the total pipeline. The upscale chain scale follows with 1,070 projects/216,301 rooms, representing 31% of projects and 35% of rooms. These two chain scales combined account for 67% of projects and 65% of rooms in China’s hotel construction pipeline, with 2,334 projects/401,375 rooms. The upper upscale chain scale has 360 projects/95,003 rooms, the midscale chain scale has 276 projects/28,196 rooms, and the luxury chain scale has 257 projects/53,249 rooms.
Brand conversions reach record-high project and room totals, with 253 projects/41,623 rooms. New project announcements (NPAs) total 178 projects/27,212 rooms, and construction starts stand at 153 projects/23,333 rooms.
Cities in China with the largest pipelines, at the Q3 close, are Guangzhou, with 123 projects/25,231 rooms, Chengdu with 121 projects/21,950 rooms, Shanghai with 113 projects/20,873 rooms, Hangzhou with 95 projects/17,662 rooms, and Xi’an with 78 projects/14,011 rooms.
Through the third quarter of 2026, 685 new hotels, accounting for 96,036 rooms, have opened in China. The LE forecast for new hotel openings expects another 327 hotels with 44,257 rooms to open in the fourth quarter, bringing the forecasted new hotel openings to 1,012 new hotels with 140,293 rooms by year-end 2026.
LE analysts forecast 939 new hotels with 156,858 rooms to open in 2027. In 2028, analysts expect 710 new hotel openings with 123,434 rooms to open.
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