Canada’s hotel pipeline reached a new high in both the number of projects and number of rooms under construction.

Industry analysts Lodging Econometrics (LE) recently released their latest Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report for Canada for the first quarter of this year. The study finds that there were 314 projects and 39,628 rooms in the total pipeline.

The new project count represents an 11% increase in project counts, year over year, while the room count is 5% than a year ago.

LE reports a surge of projects that moved into the under-construction stage in 2023.

Currently, there are 70 projects and 9,151 rooms under construction across the country. Those figures are up 49% and 58% year over year, respectively. Additionally, at the close of the first quarter, there are 80 projects and 9,593 rooms scheduled to start construction in the next twelve months while projects and rooms in the early planning stage reached all-time highs of 164 projects and 20,884 rooms, increasing 13% and 1% year over year, respectively.

At the Q1 close, hotel construction projects in Ontario accounted for 59% of the projects and 60% of the rooms in the total pipeline, for new all-time highs of 186 projects and 23,839 rooms.

British Columbia followed with a record 57 projects and 8,290 rooms, and Quebec reported 20 projects and 2,403 rooms. Combined, the provinces accounted for 84% of the projects and 87% of the rooms in the total pipeline in Canada at Q1.

Toronto continues to boast the highest number of construction projects in the pipeline with a record-high 67 projects totaling 9,323 rooms, followed by Vancouver with 21 projects and 4,079 rooms, then Montreal with 15 projects and 1,912 rooms. Ottawa-Gatineau also reached a new record of 14 projects with 1,992 rooms, increasing 40% and 27% year over year, respectively.

Five new hotels with 704 rooms opened in Canada during the first quarter. An additional 26 new hotels, accounting for 3,050 rooms, are scheduled to open by year-end.

According to LE analysts, a total of 31 new hotels and 3,754 rooms will open in 2024, for a 1% growth rate compared to the 26 new hotels and 3,344 rooms that opened in 2023.

LE analysts forecast new hotel openings in Canada will continue to rise through year-end 2025 with a total of 39 new hotel openings with 3,869 rooms, marking a 1.1% new supply growth rate increase.