Analysis by Lodging Econometrics:

Construction pipelines in major markets are growing. Significantly, seven hotels with more than 1,000 rooms each were included in the pipeline in the first quarter of 2008, four of which were removed from the pipeline in years past and have since been reactivated. Of those seven, three are casino projects, while another is a 3,500-room Marriott in Las Vegas.

Of the leading markets, seven have more than 100 projects in their construction pipelines, while 10 have more than 10,000 rooms. Six of the markets have total room counts in the pipeline greater than 25 percent of their existing census and bear continued monitoring.

Houston and New York are rapidly climbing the list. Although somewhat offset by other project cancellations and new openings, they respectively reported a whopping 61 and 57 new projects over the last two quarters.