STR projects U.S. hotel demand will be stronger than previously expected through 2015,

the firm announced Thursday in an updated forecast with Tourism Economics. After second-quarter demand growth exceeded expectations, the firm now projects full-year occupancy for 2014 will increase 2.6 percent to 63.8 percent, and average daily rate will increase 4.2 percent to $115.02. STR senior vice president of strategic development Jan Freitag in a statement noted "group bookings have returned and are now complementing the already very strong transient room demand." For 2015, the forecast projects ADR will increase 4.4 percent to $120.13 and occupancy will increase 0.7 percent to 64.2 percent.