The hotel construction pipeline in the Middle East set another cyclical high in the third quarter with 617 projects and 180,097 rooms, according to the latest data from Lodging Econometrics.

The new-pipeline-project counts are up 8 percent while room counts show a 15-percent increase year-over-year, when the pipeline stood at 572 projects and 156,420 rooms.

There are currently 360 hotels with 115,222 rooms under construction, a record high. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months are at 138 hotels with 35,299 rooms, while projects in the early planning stage are at 119 hotels and 29,576 rooms.