The U.S. hotel industry began 2020 with positive January results in the three key performance indicators, according to STR. Compared with January 2019, occupancy rose 0.8 percent to 55.1 percent, average daily rate was up 1.4 percent to $126.06, and revenue per available room increased 2.2 percent to $69.47.
Though the year started strong, "the obvious concern is whether we will see coronavirus effects on U.S. performance that is already forecasted to be lackluster for 2020," said STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag. "To this point into February weekly data, there has not been a noticeable impact, but that is expected to change at some point amid a significant drop in Chinese arrivals, especially in gateway cities."
STR's 2020 RevPAR forecast remains the same, at 0 percent year-over-year growth.
Among the top 25 markets, 19 reported a RevPAR increase. Super Bowl LIV host Miami posted the largest RevPAR pick-up at 18.6 percent as well as the only double-digit percentage increase in ADR at 14.5 percent. St. Louis reported the highest occupancy rise at 7.6 percent and the second-largest increase in RevPAR at 14 percent. Oahu, Hawaii, recorded the only other double-digit RevPAR increase at 12.9 percent.
Detroit reported the largest drop in RevPAR at 13.7 percent, due primarily to the only double-digit percentage decrease in ADR at 12.2 percent. Last year's Super Bowl host, Atlanta, reported the largest decline in occupancy at 4.8 percent, coupled with a 12.3 percent decrease in RevPAR.
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