The U.S. hotel industry posted mostly flat year-over-year results in March for its three key performance metrics, according to STR. Occupancy remained at 68.4 percent, while average daily rate increased 0.6 percent to $132.66 and revenue per available room also rose 0.6 percent, to $90.78. STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag said that despite an anticipated year-over-year boost in the month's group business because of the Easter calendar shift, "this was probably the industry's worst March since the recession. The 0.6 percent change in ADR was the lowest for any month in the U.S. since May 2010, which indicates that pricing confidence may not yet have reached its floor. On the plus side, we continue to break monthly demand records, which is keeping overall performance in the black."
The industry has now posted year-over-year RevPAR growth for 108 of the past 109 months, though March's was moderate. Among the 25 U.S. markets with the most rooms, San Francisco/San Mateo County posted the only double-digit increase in RevPAR, 10 percent to $200.92. Freitag noted that business coming back to the market thanks to the reopened Moscone Center continues to help the market's year-over-year performance. New York reported the only double-digit decline in RevPAR, 7 percent to $218.98. Philadelphia saw the largest drop in occupancy, 6.9 percent to 68.4 percent. Top markets continue to underperform in year-over-year growth as new inventory "is pulling occupancy levels down and further affecting hotelier pricing confidence," Freitag said.
STR's first-quarter results show a slightly rosier picture. Year-over-year quarterly occupancy rose 0.4 percent to 61.8 percent, ADR increased 1.1 percent to $129.02 and RevPAR rose 1.5 percent to $79.68. Demand increased 2.4 percent and outpaced supply's 2 percent growth for the quarter. The three key metrics were the highest for any Q1 on record, however growth came in below projected levels as "the industry reported its lowest RevPAR percentage change for an opening quarter since 2010," said STR SVP of operations Bobby Bowers.
Among the 25 markets with the most rooms, San Francisco/San Mateo County, again bolstered by the Moscone Center reopening, posted the largest lift in ADR for the first quarter, 15.9 percent to $270.23, resulting in the largest RevPAR increase, 15.9 percent to $209.51. Tampa/St. Petersburg had the highest rise in occupancy, 2.4 percent to 81.2 percent. The Super Bowl lifted Atlanta's ADR 12.7 percent to $126.19, which pushed RevPAR up 14.1 percent to $88.59. As it did for March, Philadelphia led for the quarter with the steepest decrease in occupancy, 7.8 percent to 59.8 percent.
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