• USA Today, Tuesday, September 18, 2007 11:45 AM

About 196,000 rooms in more than 2,000 new hotels will open within two years, according to a report from industry tracker Smith Travel Research. That's the highest number of new rooms in the pipeline in more than seven years.

Industry consultant Mark Woodworth of PKF Consulting sees no threat to the building boom from tight credit. Hotel financiers, he says, believe a "fresh shiny product" is worth the risk. For now, developers mostly are opting to build hotels that will charge midrange rates, the Smith report shows. Holiday Inn Express is building the most rooms, followed by the Hampton Inn chain and Hilton Garden Inn.

The hotel industry finished 2006 with a U.S. occupancy rate of 63.4%, the highest since 1998, says industry consultant Bjorn Hanson at PricewaterhouseCoopers. This quarter, the average nightly rate is expected to reach a record $103, versus $83 five years ago, according to PKF Consulting.

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