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GCC hotels set to add 126,000 new rooms by 2030, says new report
Cavendish Maxwell says Saudi Arabia leads in hotel expansion, with almost 94,500 new rooms in the pipeline, taking its planned 2030 total to nearly 275,300
- PUBLISHED: Tue 29 Sept 2026, 12:15 PM
GCC countries are expected to deliver around 126,000 new hotel rooms by 2030, boosting existing supply by 25 per cent and taking total room inventory to 616,000, according to Cavendish Maxwell.
All in all, the Gulf countries have a combined 490,000 rooms in operation, 43 per cent of which are in the UAE. As of August 2026, there were 212,135 keys in the country, including around 151,380 in Dubai.
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The UAE came in second, after Saudi Arabia, which has an upcoming supply of more than 23,000 rooms, including 11,180 in Dubai.
The property consultant said Saudi Arabia leads in hotel expansion, with almost 94,500 new rooms in the pipeline, taking its planned 2030 total to nearly 275,300.
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The report was released at the Future Hospitality Summit World on Tuesday.
Cavendish Maxwell also revealed in its report that occupancy rates from January to August 2026 fell in all GCC countries, though it was most felt in Bahrain, dropping 31 per cent and averaging just under 37 per cent occupancy.
Saudi Arabia fared the best, declining only 3 per cent compared with the same period last year, with 59 per cent occupancy.
In the UAE, occupancy averaged 59 per cent, down almost a quarter, with Dubai seeing a 27 per cent drop.
Elsewhere, occupancy stood at approximately 38 per cent in Kuwait (down 18 per cent); 48 per cent in Oman (down 13 per cent), 60 per cent in Qatar (down 13 per cent) and 48 per cent in Oman (down 13 per cent).
Average daily rates, a marker for measuring performance in hospitality, between January and August held relatively firm, Cavendish Maxwell noted, and even climbed slightly in Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi. Kuwait’s ADR in the first 8 months of 2026 was just below $199, up 3.2 per cent on the same period last year.
In Oman, ADR rose nearly 1 per cent year-on-year to $142 and in Saudi it was up 0.6 per cent at around $199. ADR dropped 4.5 per cent in Qatar, where January-August prices were $117, and 7 per cent in the UAE (US$165). In Dubai ADR was just under $168, down nearly 9 per cent.
Hind Aldah is a business reporter based in Sharjah. In her spare time, you will find her playing classical guitar, painting amateur oil paintings, or crocheting the same old scarf that leads nowhere.