Hotel Developers Turn to Prefab Construction to Meet Demand
Hotels in the U.S. surpassed five million available rooms for the first time last year. But supply, which is expected to grow by only 1.6% in 2016, at that rate would continue to lag demand, according to forecasts by STR, the research and benchmarking service provider. This dilemma may account for the increased interest in prefab construction among developers and property managers. The Modular Building Institute, in its “Permanent Modular Construction 2015 Annual Report,” based on data from 73 North American modular manufacturers, estimates that prefab hotel construction in the U.S. increased by 31% and 25.7%, respectively, in the last two years, with the Southeast and South Central parts of the country seeing the most activity in that sector. “Hotel brands and developers are finding compelling advantages to using the latest forms of prefab construction for new projects, whether it’s implementing just bathroom ‘pods’ or pre-fabricating the entire guestroom,” stated a posting last May on Hotel News Now’s website. That post noted that, by way of example, Hilton Worldwide...
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