The U.S. hotel pipeline for September was 6.6 percent greater than in September 2016, according to STR. Rooms reached 585,248 across 4,886 projects under contract, which includes projects in construction, final planning and planning stages. "The overall room construction total was down from last month, but outside of Houston, there wasn't a noticeable decline in activity around hurricane-affected markets," said STR SVP of operations Bobby Bowers. "There is still potential for that to change in next month's reporting if damage to existing sites and increased material costs continue to remain a challenge." Among the 25 markets with the most room inventory, New York reported the most rooms under contract (25,607), followed by Dallas (19,312), Orlando (16,368 ) and Houston (16,266 rooms). The impact of new supply has already dragged on occupancy so far in 2017, Bowers said, but demand in the major markets remains healthy.