Lagos State has emerged as the African city with the third-largest hotel room development pipeline in 2026.
This was revealed in the W Hospitality Group’s Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa 2026 Report Highlights.
The report provides a snapshot of planned hotel projects across the continent, ahead of the full report’s release, showing that Nigeria’s commercial capital trails only Greater Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh in hotel expansion plans.
What the report is saying
According to the report highlights, Lagos has a hotel room pipeline of 4,250 rooms, placing it third on the continent.
- Greater Cairo leads by a wide margin with 22,111 rooms, representing 18% of the entire African pipeline, slightly up from 17% last year.
- Sharm El Sheikh follows with 4,851 rooms in its development pipeline.
- Marsa Alam in Egypt is set to add 3,769 rooms, while Nairobi in Kenya plans 3,650 new rooms.
- Addis Ababa in Ethiopia follows with 3,573 rooms, with Accra, Ghana at 3,443 rooms.
- Casablanca in Morocco and Zanzibar in Tanzania have 3,335 and 3,319 rooms respectively, while Egypt’s Ain Sokhna rounds out the top ten with 3,071 rooms.
The report highlights that resorts are growing faster than city hotels, with larger average sizes and increased investor confidence driving this trend.
More insights
At the country level, Nigeria ranks third with 8,480 rooms across 57 hotels, behind Egypt and Morocco. The report notes an uneven regional distribution, with only four countries in North Africa and 38 in sub-Saharan Africa participating in development, leaving 12 countries without recorded deals.
- Morocco and Egypt together account for over 45% of the total pipeline rooms.
- About 60 deals were signed in these two countries in 2025, representing 40% of the 150 deals across Africa.
- By number of rooms, the top ten countries account for 79% of the rooms in the survey and over 75% of last year’s signings.
Egypt alone has almost 46,000 rooms across 185 hotels, with 33 openings expected in 2026.
What you should know
In an exclusive Nairametrics interview, Trevor Ward, Principal of the W Hospitality Group, highlighted key trends shaping Africa’s hotel development.
He noted that resorts are driving much of the growth, accounting for roughly 50% of new hotel openings continent-wide last year.
Franchise agreements between hotel chains and property owners have risen to 146, a 35% increase from last year, now representing almost 22% of the total pipeline.
The pipeline shows a shortage of economy and midscale hotels, with focus heavily on 5-star and luxury properties.
Domestic and regional travel growth presents an opportunity for midscale hotels, but many local properties struggle with design, construction, and operations.
Ward explained that while franchise agreements allow owners to retain day-to-day control, management agreements give chains full operational control. The shortage of midscale hotels highlights a gap in the market that international and regional brands could fill in the coming years.
