As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the U.S., the country's hotel demand remains in a freefall, with massive declines in the three key performance indicators for the week ending April 4, according to STR.
Compared with the week ending April 6, 2019, occupancy fell 68.5 percent to 21.6 percent, average daily rate dropped 41.5 percent to $76.51, and revenue per available room declined 81.6 percent to $16.50, which represents the third week in a row of record-setting weekly declines for STR.
"Data worsened a bit from last week, and certain patterns were extended around occupancy," said STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag. "Economy hotels continued to run the highest occupancy, while interstate and suburban properties once again posted the top occupancy rates among location types. This shows there are still pockets of demand while more than 75 percent of the rooms around the country are empty. We don't expect any material change in the magnitude of RevPAR declines for the time being."
Aggregate data for the top 25 U.S. markets showed even steeper declines across the metrics. Weekly occupancy fell 74.7 percent year over year to 19.4 percent, ADR dropped 47 percent to $85.61, and RevPAR plunged 86.6 percent to $16.57.
Oahu experienced the largest decrease in occupancy (90.7 percent) and the only single-digit absolute occupancy level (7 percent). The occupancy decline resulted in the steepest drop in RevPAR (93.7 percent). Minneapolis/St. Paul reported the largest decline in ADR (57 percent to $68.23).
Group occupancy was at 1.3 percent for the top 25 markets in the luxury and upper-upscale classes, which have the most meeting space. Group occupancy declined 95.2 percent year over year and by nearly negative 100 percent in many markets. New Orleans, down 84.7 percent, Norfolk/Virginia Beach (down 78.3 percent), Philadelphia (down 85 percent) and Seattle (down 87.5 percent) were exceptions.
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