Carolinas Hotel Development, Construction & Transactions

Hotel development across North Carolina and South Carolina reflects a deep pipeline concentrated in the upscale and upper midscale tiers, supported by steady transaction activity and a consistent pace of new openings. Lodging Development currently tracks 115 projects totaling 14,892 rooms in the Carolinas, alongside 51 transactions recorded over the most recent 18-month reporting window. With 46 hotels delivering a combined 5,835 rooms over the past 24 months, the region continues to attract investment across both branded select-service and independent lifestyle concepts.

The Carolinas development pipeline is led by upscale and upper midscale projects, which together account for 68 of the 115 projects tracked by Lodging Development across both states. Upper upscale developments add another 20 projects totaling 3,705 rooms, while luxury-tier activity is limited to two projects representing 239 rooms.

Among the projects currently tracked, the 600-room Omni Hotel Raleigh Convention Center stands out as the largest, with Omni Hotels & Resorts serving as developer and the project in active construction. In Myrtle Beach, Drury Hotels Company is planning a 400-room Drury Plaza Hotel. North Carolina's Research Triangle is also seeing investment from Daly Seven, whose dual-branded Courtyard and Residence Inn in Cary is under construction with 249 rooms. A 264-room unaffiliated project, the City Gateway Hotel & Parking Facility, is in planning from Capital City Urban Development.

Lodging Development has recorded 46 hotel openings totaling 5,835 rooms across North Carolina and South Carolina over the past 24 months. Recent arrivals include The Balladeer Hotel, a 70-room Tribute Portfolio property that opened in early May 2026, and The Cooper Hotel, a 191-room independent upper upscale property that debuted in late March 2026. The Courtyard Sugar Mountain Banner Elk opened in late April with 118 rooms, while the Compass by Margaritaville Beaufort added 105 upscale rooms in South Carolina in late February. Other notable openings include the 128-room SpringHill Suites High Point, which opened in November 2025.

Over the 18-month period ending in late November 2025, Lodging Development tracked 51 hotel transactions of $10 million and above across the Carolinas. Among the 28 transactions with documented sale prices, total recorded volume reached approximately $889.6 million. An additional 22 transactions lacked disclosed pricing but carried recorded loan data, from which Lodging Development derives estimated values using an 80% loan-to-value ratio — adding an estimated $179.8 million in volume. One transaction lacked sufficient data for inclusion in either figure.

Notable recent activity includes the sale of the 135-room Courtyard Greenville Downtown to T2 Hospitality for $43.55 million in October 2025. Milan Hotel Group acquired a pair of Asheville properties the following month — the 78-room Courtyard Asheville and the 88-room SpringHill Suites Asheville — in transactions totaling approximately $12.8 million.