Middle East Hotel Construction Pipeline Reaches New All-Time High Project Counts at Q2 2025

The Q2 2025 Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report for the Middle East, from Lodging Econometrics (LE), reveals that, as of Q2, the hotel construction pipeline in the region reached a new all-time high of 650 projects with 161,574 rooms. At the close of the second quarter, the region’s pipeline is up 7% by projects and 10% by rooms year-over-year (YOY).

At Q2 2025, hotel projects currently under construction in the Middle East stand at 337 projects/86,447 rooms, up 12% by projects and 7% by rooms YOY. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 147 projects/45,457 rooms, up 31% by rooms YOY. Projects in the early planning stage stand at 166 projects/29,670 rooms, up 2% by projects YOY.

New project announcements in the Middle East at the second quarter close stand at 48 projects/10,567 rooms, while new construction starts stand at 32 projects/8,587 rooms, up 23% by projects and 38% by rooms YOY. Additionally, combined hotel renovations and brand conversions reached record totals at Q1, with 67 projects/14,768 rooms.

The luxury chain scale achieved all-time high totals with 196 projects/43,942 rooms, while the upper upscale chain scale reached record project totals with 150 projects/38,357 rooms. Together, these top two chain scales account for 55% of projects and 56% of rooms in the region’s pipeline.

LE analysts report that, at Q2, the top Middle Eastern countries with the greatest number of projects are Saudi Arabia, with a record 342 projects and 92,187 rooms. Egypt follows with 127 projects and a record-high room count of 28,172 rooms. Next is the United Arab Emirates with 100 projects/25,470 rooms, Oman with 27 projects/4,709 rooms, and Qatar with 16 projects/3,473 rooms.

Cities in the Middle East with the largest pipelines at Q2 are led by Riyadh with 88 projects/18,152 rooms, Jeddah with 56 projects/12,627 rooms, Dubai with 53 projects/13,726 rooms, Cairo with 48 projects/10,715 rooms, and Makkah with 29 projects/18,323 rooms.

For the first half of the year, the Middle East opened 14 new hotels/4,327 rooms. LE is forecasting an additional 89 new hotels/19,269 rooms to open throughout the remainder of the year for a total of 103 new hotels/23,596 rooms to open by year-end 2025. By year-end 2026, LE analysts forecast 94 new hotels/19,019 rooms to open across the Middle East, with another 91 hotels/22,631 rooms forecast for 2027.