PAUL BUBNY: At the end of this year's first quarter, Lodging Econometrics reported that slightly more than 400,000 rooms were in the pipeline. Has that number increased appreciably as of midyear?

JP FORD: At the close of the second quarter, there were 3,311 projects and 421,387 rooms in the pipeline. So that's a pretty decent bump from the end of the first quarter.

BUBNY: What kind of year-over-year increase does that represent?

FORD: At the end of the second quarter of 2013, there were 2,822 projects in the pipeline and 350,151 rooms. On a project basis, that's up 17%, and on a room basis, that's up 20%.

BUBNY: Are we seeing a concentration of development in the top 20 or 25 lodging markets?

FORD: New York City has the most projects in the pipeline at 177, with 30,622 rooms, followed by Houston at 115 projects and 13,306 rooms and Washington, DC with 81 projects and 13,298 rooms. Taking a look at New York, if all of those projects and rooms opened—and I emphasize the word “if”—that would be over a 28% increase in supply. In Houston, supply would increase 18% if everything got built, and in Washington the number would be 12%. Again, that's a big “if.”

Not all of those projects will roll out at the same time; they'll be phased in over the next three years. New York is absolutely a gateway destination into this country, as is Washington. Houston is somewhat less so; a lot of the construction pipeline there is oil- and gas-related.

But one of the interesting things we've seen is that a pretty heavy portion of the construction pipeline is concentrated on the coasts. With the exception of Chicago and Houston, it's the gateway cities on the East and West coasts that have the strongest pipelines. They're also some of the highest-rated markets in the country, very attractive to developers.

BUBNY: Since 2014, a number of global trouble spots have flared up, such as Ukraine and Gaza. Do you see that having any potential drag on either international tourism or investor interest?

FORD: The potential is there; I can't say that we've seen it. The hotel industry in this country is having a very good year. If a lot of those international crises escalated a notch or two, and became prolonged, then it would represent more of a problem than it is at the moment.

BUBNY: One thing that's definitely in developers' favor at present is the low-interest-rate environment. In many different corners of commercial real estate, they're watching and waiting for that to start to change. Do you see this posing any concern for hotel development, in terms of making construction financing more expensive?

FORD: We all know that at some point, interest rates are going to rise. We've all been very happy with the rate they're at right now and certainly wish for that to continue. If there's a small bump in interest rates, I don't know that that's going to put financing on the sidelines, or signal that financing will go away. I think what's going to happen is that it will just become more costly for developers, and more costly for people who are out acquiring hotels.