In what likely will be the final month during this crisis with significant year-over-year declines in the U.S. hotel industry's key performance indicators, February's KPIs improved month over month from January, and hotels reported lower year-over-year declines in all three metrics, according to STR.
The Covid-19 pandemic in the United States began in full in March 2020, making February the last month where pre-pandemic year-over-year comparisons are possible.
Monthly U.S. hotel occupancy and revenue per available room rates in February were the highest since October 2020, while the average daily rate was the highest since September 2020, according to STR.
February's U.S. occupancy declined 26.6 percent year over year to 45.3 percent, an improvement from January's 39.3 percent occupancy level. ADR was down 24.8 percent compared with February 2020, but February 2021 ADR of $98.31 compared favorably with January's $90.79. RevPAR fell 44.8 percent year over year to $44.57, but that, too, was an improvement over last month's decline of 48.2 percent and $35.72.
Economy was the only chain scale to report an occupancy level above 50 percent (51.1 percent), but upper midscale (48.8 percent) and upscale (47 percent) were not that far behind. Upper upscale and luxury continued to struggle with occupancy levels in the low 30 percent range. Occupancy levels by location are flattening, with all but urban markets (37.8 percent) posting levels from 43.4 percent to 48.7 percent.
The top 25 markets continued to fare worse than all the other markets STR tracks in terms of year-over-year declines. However, in February two destinations—Miami and Tampa—reported occupancy levels above 65 percent, with Atlanta, Los Angeles and Phoenix posting above 50 percent. This compares with just two markets above 50 percent in January. Tampa's figures were boosted by hosting Super Bowl LV.
Oahu at 29.3 percent was the only market with a February occupancy level lower than 30 percent. Next-worst performers were Minneapolis at 30.3 percent and Boston at 32.1 percent.
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