Los Angeles is leading the nation in hotel room construction despite a 64% occupancy rate to end 2021 as reported by L.A Business First, citing Lodging Econometrics.
The hospitality sector—next to retail—took a severe blow due to the pandemic, but ‘leisure-travelers’ are largely responsible for the city reaching 100% of its pre-pandemic hotel room booking levels.
As we approached the ending of 2021, the city of Los Angeles was registering almost 20,000 rooms spanning roughly 120 projects in the pipeline. Lodging Econometrics underlined a total of 3,630 rooms currently under construction while 6,278 rooms are scheduled to begin construction in 2022. Furthermore, 9,900 rooms are still in early planning phases.
“Los Angeles will rank fourth in the nation for new hotel openings this year, as just over 3,000 rooms in 19 projects are scheduled to open.”
BISNOW
This bullishness comes even though occupancy in 2021 averaged 64% to closeout the year. It was, however, an improvement from 2020’s occupancy rate of just under 50%, yet not close enough to 2019’s 79.3% average.
Los Angeles based, AEG, who owns luxury properties in ‘LA Live,’ showed that it has confidence in the hospitality sector’s rebound. It made public the group’s intentions to sell part ownership of properties such as the J.W Marriot and Ritz-Carlton, in order to use the money to expand a neighboring hotel complex by 800 rooms.