The global hotel inventory has risen by 18% over the past 10 years.

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The figures were released by industry analysts STR to mark the 10th anniversary of its global expansion.

The report reveals there are 184,299 hotels comprising 16,966,280 million rooms around the world. That number of rooms represents a 17.7% increase over the last 10 years.

“The hotel sector and its rate of return continue to attract real-estate investors—that is evident through the substantial growth in performance metrics and development we have seen over the past decade,” said Robin Rossmann, STR’s international managing director.

“While the story is rarely the same for any two markets around the world, the industry as a whole continues to perform at robust levels, and we expect continued growth over the coming years.”

STR defines a hotel on three exclusionary criteria: 1) generates revenue on a nightly per-room basis, 2) has 10 or more rooms and 3) is open to the public (excludes those properties requiring membership, affiliation or club status).

“STR is proud to support the sector’s growth through our broad range of data-driven solutions that help tens of thousands of clients globally,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president and CEO.

“While STR has served hotels for more than three decades, today is a major milestone for our company with 10 years in the international market. We look forward to the further digitisation of our products and growth of our thought-leadership capabilities that will meet the evolving needs and expectations of our clients—in all the industries we serve.”