New York City hotels are still suffering from the effects of the pandemic, but that hasn’t slowed the flow of new properties expected to open this year and in the years to come, the Wall Street Journal reported. Forty-eight hotels are scheduled to add an estimated 6,500 rooms to the New York City market in 2022, according to fourth-quarter figures released Jan. 23 from research firm Lodging Econometrics. That puts the city on track for the nation’s second-highest growth rate, just behind Austin, Texas, for hotel rooms added among the 50 biggest markets. Hotel operators and developers were drawn to the city’s strong economy and growing tourism sector in the years before COVID-19. In the decade leading up to the pandemic, New York City added more than 41,000 hotel rooms, increasing the city’s room count by 47%. Business travel and tourism cratered during the pandemic and many hotels are struggling to sell rooms. But even lackluster demand hasn’t derailed hotel construction. There were 121 hotels in the New York pipeline as of the fourth quarter, which would add more than 19,000 rooms in the coming years, Lodging Econometrics said.
