America’s hotel development cycle is quietly but decisively shifting gears, and in 2026 the winners are clear: New York City and Phoenix.
According to fresh pipeline data from CoStar Group, the two cities are projected to open more new hotel rooms next year than any other U.S. market, an outcome that says as much about confidence as it does about concrete and steel.
New York City alone is expected to welcome 4,852 new hotel rooms in 2026, maintaining its position as the nation’s most aggressive hospitality growth market for the second year running. Phoenix follows with 3,650 rooms, underscoring the Sun Belt’s continued appeal to developers chasing population growth, corporate relocations and year-round leisure demand.
They are joined by Dallas (3,558 rooms), Orlando (1,988) and Miami (1,954), a line-up that neatly captures America’s post-pandemic travel geography: business hubs, lifestyle cities and leisure powerhouses, all expanding cautiously but with conviction.
“For a second consecutive year, New York City leads the nation in expected new-build openings,” said Isaac Collazo, senior director of analytics at STR. “This shouldn’t be a surprise given that the market has also led the country in occupancy for the last three years. That said, both room supply and room demand are still lower today than they were in 2019, showing there is still opportunity for further growth.”
That final point matters. While cranes may once again dot skylines, the U.S. hotel sector is not overheating. Instead, it is recalibrating, catching up to demand that returned faster than developers did.
Nationally, 2026 is projected to see 891 new hotels open, delivering 99,011 rooms, a clear step up from 2025’s 749 hotels and 79,116 rooms. Looking further ahead, the pipeline swells dramatically, with 2027 forecast to deliver 1,688 hotels and nearly 192,000 rooms, numbers that would have seemed implausible during the depths of the pandemic.
“While U.S. hotel development has been slow, there is still optimism around the industry based on the record number of projects in the pipeline,” Collazo said. “It’s not surprising that 2025 saw the largest number of new openings since 2021, and 2026 openings are expected to be back to the pre-pandemic level.”
For investors and operators alike, the message is measured optimism. Capital remains selective, construction costs remain elevated, and lenders remain cautious. Yet the fundamentals travel demand, urban recovery, and long-term population shifts are back on side.
In other words, this is not a gold rush. It is something more traditional, and arguably healthier: steady growth, disciplined development, and cities that know exactly why travellers keep coming back.
For more information on the data and analysis behind the projections, visit www.costargroup.com.
by Anne Keam – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 2 minutes.
About the Writer.
Anne Keam’s story begins in Queensland, on a grain farm in the state’s wide western reaches, where the days were long and the lessons simple: work hard, look after your own, and don’t make a fuss. Those early years left their mark.
She later studied Arts at the University of Queensland, before doing what felt natural at the time, heading back home to the family property. But the world was calling. Anne packed a backpack and went looking, spending years on the road and finding herself most alive in South America. She wrote everything down along the way. Those notebooks, full of dust, colour and curiosity, eventually became her blog, a quiet, personal record of seeing the world and learning from it.
