Weekly US Hotel Performance Inches Down From Pandemic-Era Highs

The end-of-summer slowdown was evident in the latest weekly U.S. hotel performance data, as hotel occupancy and revenue per available room inched down from pandemic-era highs.

Hotels in the U.S., however, continue to achieve all-time high average daily rates. For the week ending July 30, U.S. hotel ADR was $143, and nominal RevPAR was above $100 for a second week, despite a slight decline from the prior week, according to data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

Occupancy across the U.S. averaged above 70% for the third week, but lower than the 71.4% achieved the previous week, which set a pandemic-era record.

On a total-room-inventory basis, which accounts for temporarily closed hotels, occupancy was 67.5% and nominal RevPAR was $97. STR data shows 1.3% of U.S. hotel rooms remain temporarily closed due to the pandemic.

Weekly room demand also declined from the previous week. After two weeks of selling more than 27 million hotel room nights, the U.S. hotel industry sold 26.9 million in the week of July 30. Still, demand was 95% of the level achieved in the same week of 2019.

Demand has been down by an average of 8% compared with 2019 for the past eight weeks. The start of in-person school in the coming weeks likely will widen that gap. STR’s School Break Report reveals that most U.S. schools will be in session by the third week of August.

While nominal ADR hit a new record high, week-over-week growth was only 0.3%. The slowdown in weekly ADR growth was due to a drop in weekend ADR — down 0.8%, the second such decline of the past eight weeks.

ADR was up in the top 25 markets, where nominal ADR was the highest since the start of the pandemic. Outside of the top 25, ADR showed the slightest gain but attained another nominal record at $139. For the past six weeks, nominal ADR has been higher than in the comparable periods of 2019. On an inflation-adjusted basis — or real ADR — weekly ADR has been better than 2019 in three of the past six weeks.

According to STR’s Market Recovery Monitor, which compares the latest weekly performance data against the comparable week of 2019, total-room-inventory RevPAR remained in the “recovery” zone. RevPAR for the week of July 30 was 97% of the level achieved during the same week in 2019.

The industry has been in “recovery” — with RevPAR between 80% and 100% of 2019 levels — for the past eight weeks.

On a 28-day moving total basis, 85% of U.S. markets were either in “recovery” or “peak,” down from 89% the previous week. Peak performance constitutes RevPAR greater than the 2019 level.

Three markets remained in the “depression” category, with RevPAR less than 50% of 2019 levels, and 22 markets were in “recession,” with RevPAR between 50% and 80% of 2019 levels. Two of the three markets in “depression,” San Francisco and San Jose, have been there since the start of the pandemic. New York City reentered the category this week after a brief exit last week.

Six of the 10 markets with the highest RevPAR index are in Florida, with the remainder mostly in southeastern destination markets. The Florida Keys continued to have the highest RevPAR index.

Market Highlights

Among open hotels, 29 U.S. hotel markets reported occupancy above 80%, down from 29 in the previous week. Two markets — Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Colorado Springs — have had hotel occupancy above 90% for the past two weeks.

Fewer markets reported occupancy between 70% and 80%, and more had occupancy between 60% and 70%.

Four markets posted strong weekly occupancy gains, led by Chicago, which had the highest demand gain due in part to hosting the Lollapalooza music festival. Chicago occupancy has been above 60% for the past four weeks.

Tucson remained at the bottom in terms of occupancy for a third week.

Among STR’s top 25 markets — and on a total-room-inventory basis, since most of the temporarily closed rooms are in top 25 markets — San Diego had the highest occupancy at 81%, while New York City showed the lowest at 51%. New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco all had weekly occupancy below 55%.

Property-level occupancy also shifted downward a bit with 74% of reporting hotels posting occupancy of 60% or higher during the week, down from 76% the previous two weeks.

At the property level, 23% of hotels reported weekly occupancy of less than 60%, up from 21% the previous week; and 3% of hotels had occupancy less than 30%. Weekend occupancy stayed above 80% for a second consecutive week, and weekday occupancy reached another pandemic-era high at 68%.

Isaac Collazo is VP Analytics at STR.

This article represents an interpretation of data collected by CoStar's hospitality analytics firm, STR. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concerns. For more analysis of STR data, visit the data insights blog on STR.com.

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.