Hotel construction set a hot pace to start 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest report released by analysts Lodging Econometrics (LE) shows that at the close of the first quarter of the year, 304 hotels were under construction across the country for an all-time high of more than 40,290 rooms. Those figures are, respectively, 15 percent and 22 percent higher than during the same period a year ago.

Despite the good news, the report cautions that the full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be felt on the industry. Only the last 30 days of the quarter were affected by the pandemic.

Helping to drive the industry’s double-digit growth is a surge in projects in the early planning stages. LE reports that all-time high of 103 projects and 15,964 rooms are scheduled to be built in the near future. Those figures represent increases of 29 percent and 41 percent respectively when compared to the first quarter of 2019.

Projects under construction also hit record highs in the first quarter of 2020. The 101 projects and 12,563 rooms currently being built represent increases of 9 percent and 20 percent compared to the year previous. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 100 projects/11,764 rooms and are up 10 percent and 5 percent year over year.

Ontario again has the most projects in the pipeline stage. Its 154 projects and 20,447 rooms are a record high and account for 51 percent of those projects in the country’s pipeline. British Columbia (50 projects/6,730 rooms) and Alberta (31 projects/4,810 rooms) are the next busiest provinces. The three combined account for 79 percent of the rooms in Canada’s pipeline.

Toronto is tops among Canadian cities in terms of hotel construction volume. The city counts 21 percent of the total facilities under construction with 61 projects and nearly 8,500 rooms being built. Montreal (18 projects/2,406 rooms), Niagara Falls (14 projects/3,781 rooms), Vancouver (14 projects/1,849 rooms) and Ottawa (10 projects/1,761 rooms) round out the top five. Combined, those cities account for 45 percent of the total rooms in the LE pipeline.

Those companies with the greatest volumes of work underway include Marriott International (67 projects/8,430 rooms), (Hilton Worldwide with 65 projects/7,738 rooms) and InterContinental Hotels Group (56 projects/5,402 rooms). Those three franchises account for 62 percent of the projects in Canada’s pipeline.