US Hotel Revenue Per Available Room Surpasses $100

The U.S. hotel industry took in more than $100 in revenue for every available room for the first time since October 2019 despite slowing hotel demand as the summer leisure season wanes.

For the week ending July 24, absolute revenue per available was $101, the highest it’s been since the week of July 27, 2019, according to the latest weekly data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

U.S. hotels, on average, also continued to achieve record-high rates. Average daily rate for the week was $142, the highest ever on a nominal basis. When adjusted for inflation, ADR is slightly below the record set in 2019. Rates over the weekend were also at historic highs, with ADR of $142, while weekday rates pushed above $133 for a third consecutive week.

However, as expected, demand for hotel rooms is slowing as summer travel dissipates and as new cases of COVID-19 rise in the U.S.

Demand was up only 0.6% from the prior week, nudging hotel occupancy to 71.4% — the country’s highest level since October 2019. Keep in mind, however, that the middle weeks of July are historically the highest occupancy weeks of the year. Overall, the U.S. hotel industry sold more than 27 million rooms for a second consecutive week.

Weekday hotel occupancy was 67.6%, the highest level since the start of the pandemic, while occupancy on the weekend dropped slightly but still remained above 80% for a second consecutive week.

In the U.S., 1.4% of hotel rooms are still closed. On a total-room-inventory basis, which accounts for those temporarily closed hotels, weekly occupancy was 68.7% and RevPAR was $98 — both the highest levels since October 2019.

STR’s “Market Recovery Monitor,” which measures the pace of the U.S. hotel industry recovery by comparing the latest weekly performance data to that of the comparable week in 2019, shows that the industry as a whole is in the “recovery” stage, with RevPAR between 80% and 100% of 2019 levels. It has been at that stage for the past seven weeks.

Overall, 90% of all U.S. hotel markets were either in “recovery” or “peak” for the week, with the latter signifying that RevPAR, on a total room inventory basis, was higher than what it was in the comparable week of 2019.Market Highlights

Market-level demand remained solid with 38% of U.S. hotel markets selling more hotel rooms in the week ending July 27 than they did in the comparable week of 2019. That percentage was nearly unchanged from the previous week.

Market occupancy ranged from 94% in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge — the leader for the past three weeks — to 55% in Tucson. Two markets posted weekly occupancy above 90%, and 54% of all markets had occupancy of 70% or better, down only slightly from the previous week. More than 75% of all hotels reported 60% occupancy or higher for a second consecutive week, and 21% of all U.S. hotels reported occupancy of 90% or higher in the week.

Only two markets, San Francisco and San Jose, reported RevPAR that was less than 50% of what it was during the comparable week in 2019. However, the San Francisco market is improving as weekly occupancy achieved 58% among open hotels, which was the market’s best since the start of the pandemic.

STR’s top 25 markets produced ADR above $151, which was the best average for the major markets since early 2020. Outside the top 25, ADR was again at a record level, beating the previous high set three weeks ago.

For the past three weeks, more than 71% of all markets have reported weekly ADR higher than what it was in the comparable week of 2019. In Maui, ADR topped $573, the highest of all markets, as it has been for the past 15 weeks. Other ADR leaders included the Florida Keys, Hawaii/Kauai, Oahu, and Myrtle Beach. In all, 17 markets had weekly ADR above $200, unchanged from the previous two weeks.

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.