BizGapMap

Home / Hotels & motels / Georgia / Chatham County, GA

Chatham County, GA — Hotels Saturation

How many hotels exist per person present — residents plus daytime workers — by ZIP code, compared with the U.S. average. Establishment data: Census ZBP 2023. Population: ACS 2024 5-year. 22 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Hotels · Motels · Motor inns. Counted together because official statistics use one 721110 code.

Measured density: Very high density — 3.02× the U.S. rate (between 3.02× and 3.29× once withheld ZIP cells are counted)

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 14 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 7 of them with residents. Each could hold 0, 1, or 2 businesses: counting them all as 0 gives the low end, counting them all as 2 gives the high end — the data cannot say where the truth sits. The density range uses only the populated cells, since ZIPs without residents are excluded from per-person rates. How ranges work

Very high density   Chatham County hotels — 302–329% of the U.S. rate

159 hotels are counted in Chatham County — 4.2 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 302% of the U.S. rate of 1.4.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 17% between 2015 and 2023 (136 → 159). That set is smaller than today's county total. 2020–2021 were pandemic-distorted, and Census rounds counts, so small moves are within noise.

Measured supply density is highest in 31401 (Savannah), 31322 (Pooler), 31407 (Port Wentworth) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 31406 (Savannah), 31405 (Savannah), 31419 (Savannah).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 163 establishments, including locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA — so it can run slightly above the sum of the ZIP rows on this page. It is annual, so it lags more than QCEW.

Measured density: Chatham County sits at 302% of the U.S. rate for hotels. 7 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 302% and 329% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 31401 and 31322; the lowest measured density is in 31406 and 31405.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing hotels and the people present, not foot traffic, income, rent, or whether locals want more. Treat low density as a question to check, not an answer.

Hotels
159–187
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (14 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
4.2
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.4
per 10,000 present
County index
3.02×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
163
2023 — $131M annual payroll
Residents
305,309
15 ZIPs with data
Workers
152,075
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
307,336
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+4.2%
+12,260 people
Net migration 2024
+1,999
international +2,014, domestic −15
Jobs located here
159,712
LODES 2022, +0.9% since 2019

Chatham County had an estimated 307,336 residents on July 1, 2024 — 4.2% more than in 2020 (+12,260). In the latest year it gained 2,579 people: births minus deaths +603, international migration +2,014, domestic migration −15. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

159,712 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+0.9% since 2019), and 121,296 employed residents lived there (+0.6% since 2019). LODES counts wage and salary jobs covered by unemployment insurance plus federal jobs; it excludes the self-employed and military, and counts jobs rather than unique people. 2019→2022 spans the pandemic, so read it as one change, not a trend.

Population and migration say whether the customer base is growing. They do not say whether people want another business of this type. Definitions and limits →  ·  Full county detail →

ZIP gaining residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
31407 Port Wentworth
+79.4%
31322 Pooler
+15.4%
31408 Savannah
+12.1%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change

No ZIP had a statistically significant decrease.

ACS 5-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2020–2024. Only ZIPs with at least 2,000 residents in both windows and a change larger than the survey margin of error (90%) are listed — small ZIPs move a lot on paper without a real signal.

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes hotels only combined with other traveler accommodation (NAICS 7211), so a hotels-and-motels-only nonemployer count is not published.

Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (NAICS 2022). We do not approximate this figure.

Saturation map

Each ZIP area is shaded by its density of this business type per person present (residents + workers) vs. the U.S. average. Click any ZIP to zoom to its boundary, see its numbers, and switch to aerial imagery. Individual mapped shops appear as dots at street level — Show locations zooms you in to them (scroll or double-click to zoom).

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size) Mapped shop (OpenStreetMap, street level)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more hotels in that ZIP. They are aggregated, not individual shops. Turquoise dots are individual locations mapped in OpenStreetMap, shown only at street level; they are crowd-sourced and indicative, may be incomplete, and do not equal the official counts. Only the official ZIP totals feed the saturation index.

Market trend — up 17% since 2015

Number of hotels in Chatham County across 2015–2023, on a consistent set of ZIP codes present in every year — so changes are real, not ZIP-boundary artifacts. 2015/2018 are pre-pandemic baselines; 2020/2021 are COVID-distorted.

136
2015
155
2018
169
2020
175
2021
177
2022
159
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
31401 Savannah
798%
31322 Pooler
469%
31407 Port Wentworth
346%
31419 Savannah
325%
31405 Savannah
281%
31406 Savannah
149%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
31406 Savannah
149%
31405 Savannah
281%
31419 Savannah
325%
31407 Port Wentworth
346%
31322 Pooler
469%
31401 Savannah
798%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few hotels may simply lack foot traffic, retail space, or demand. We rank only residential and mixed ZIPs here; employment hubs and visitor destinations are listed separately below. ZIPs where Census did not publish a count (0–2 businesses) are not ranked: they may be the least served of all, but the data cannot tell 0 from 1 or 2. Verify those locally.

Employment hubs & destinations

These ZIPs have far more workers (or visitors) than residents, so their counts are driven by daytime and visitor demand — not a place to read "shortage" from resident numbers alone.

ZIPNeighborhoodType ResidentsWorkersHotelsIndex
31408Savannah Employment hub 11,62127,919 21 595%
31421Savannah Destination 16830 0–2 —

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

Click a column header to sort. Index = hotels per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersHotels Per 10kIndexStatus
31328Tybee Island 3,3531,305 7 17.5 1266% Very high density
31401Savannah 20,44522,671 35 11.0 798% Very high density
31408Savannah 11,62127,919 21 8.2 595% Very high density
31322Pooler 30,14516,950 25 6.5 469% Very high density
31407Port Wentworth 24,8938,859 14 4.8 346% Very high density
31419Savannah 57,07710,640 28 4.5 325% Very high density
31405Savannah 40,76421,472 20 3.9 281% Very high density
31406Savannah 34,90417,487 9 2.1 149% Above average
31302Bloomingdale 8,8991,739 0–2 — — Not published
31402Savannah —1,396 0–2 — — Not published
31403Savannah —153 0–2 — — Not published
31404Savannah 30,06211,343 0–2 — — Not published
31409Savannah 444240 0–2 — — Not published
31410Savannah 22,2143,680 0–2 — — Not published
31411Savannah 9,3901,945 0–2 — — Not published
31412Savannah —103 0–2 — — Not published
31414Savannah —28 0–2 — — Not published
31415Savannah 11,0824,995 0–2 — — Not published
31416Savannah —184 0–2 — — Not published
31418Savannah —462 0–2 — — Not published
31420Savannah —129 0–2 — — Not published
31421Savannah 16830 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Savannah

The numbers above tell you how the market looks. To find a specific storefront, these marketplaces list available retail space for lease.

LoopNet
Largest commercial marketplace
Browse Savannah retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Savannah retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Savannah retail space →

Open vacancy data (actual empty units) is only published by some cities; where it exists we show it directly. Listings above are third-party.

Census withholds some ZIP-by-industry cells to protect small businesses. 0–2 means the cell was not published (Census publishes industry counts only at 3+ per ZIP), so the ZIP is left unranked rather than counted as zero. ~ means the count is estimated from the broader industry group and can be off by a business or two.

Follow Chatham County and hotels

When a data vintage changes or a section of this report is revised, we post it to a public update feed. No email address, no account, no tracking — and nothing is sent unless something actually changed.

Subscribe to updates (RSS) How these numbers are built →

Methodology & sources

Establishments. U.S. Census ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP 2023), NAICS 721110 — hotels (except casino hotels) and motels. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. This industry has no clean QCEW series, so the freshest county signal is Census County Business Patterns 2023: 163 establishments and $131M in annual payroll county-wide. This count includes locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA, so it can be slightly higher than the sum of the ZIP rows. CBP is annual and slower than QCEW. It cannot be broken down by ZIP.

Population. U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 5-year ZCTA population (table B01003). Workers are the ZIP's total employment from the same 2023 ZBP file.

Demand ("people present"). Demand comes from residents and daytime workers: residents + 0.5 × workers. This is the single documented assumption in the model and can be tuned.

Index. index = (ZIP establishments ÷ ZIP demand × 10,000) ÷ the U.S. average for this industry (1.38 per 10,000 present). It is a supply-side density measure; it does not capture income, rent, tourism, or whether locals actually want more.

Read the full methodology →  ·  Data sources & vintages →

BizGapMap — free, no-login small-business saturation reports for major U.S. counties. Built entirely from public U.S. Census, BLS, and IRS data (ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year, PEP 2024, LODES, QCEW, IRS SOI). No forecasts, no revenue guesses — withheld cells are marked, and the few derived counts are labelled as estimates.