The U.S. hotel industry reported "unprecedented lows" for the month of April, according to STR. Compared with April 2019, occupancy was down 63.9 percent to 24.5 percent, average daily rate declined 44.4 percent to $73.23, and revenue per available room dropped 79.9 percent to $17.93.
The absolute occupancy and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month on record in the U.S., according to STR, while the ADR value was the lowest since December 1997. Recent weekly data, however, suggests that performance may have reached the bottom in early April.
"The trend of 'less bad' data continued [for the week ending May 16] with occupancy and ADR on a slow climb driven by a fifth consecutive week-to-week increase in demand," said STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag. "Last week's data showed demand of more than 10 million room nights sold for the first time since March, and this past week, the industry inched close to 11 million. All 50 states have at least partially reopened, so slow weekly demand growth should continue with more leisure activity around the country. The industry will remain largely dependent on the leisure segment, as uncertainty remains over when hotels will be ready to accommodate large events and group business."
The occupancy level for the week ending May 16, compared with the week ending May 18, 2019, was down 54.1 percent to 32.4 percent, though occupancy was up from 21 percent the week ending April 11, 2020. ADR dropped 42.4 percent to $77.44. RevPAR declined 73.6 percent year over year to $25.12.
Aggregate data for the top 25 markets for both the past week and the month of April showed steeper declines in all three performance indicators than the national averages. For overall class segments during the month of April, the higher the segment, the steeper the decline. Luxury RevPAR was down 93.4 percent year over year compared with the economy segment, which was down 54.1 percent for the period. For occupancy, luxury and upper upscale were at 10 percent each. Economy was at 36.9 percent for the month.
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