For the third week in a row, the absolute U.S. hotel occupancy level last week increased compared to the prior week, per STR, providing "further hope that early April was the performance bottom," said STR SVP of lodging solutions Jan Freitag.
U.S. Transportation Security Administration "checkpoint numbers, up for the second week in a row, aligned with this rise in hotel guest activity, which still remains incredibly low in the big picture," Freitag said.
In addition, the year-over-year declines for occupancy and revenue per available room for the week ending May 2 were less steep than in prior weeks. Compared with the week ending May 4, 2019, occupancy declined 58.5 percent to 28.6 percent, and RevPAR declined 76.8 percent to $21.39. Only average daily rate showed a sharper year-over-year decline than the prior week, falling 44 percent to $74.72.
"Overall, these last few weeks can be filed under the 'less bad' category," Freitag said.
Aggregate data for the top 25 markets continued to show larger year-over-year declines than the national averages. Occupancy was down 64.8 percent to 27 percent. ADR fell 51.1 percent to $81.28. RevPAR declined 82.8 percent to $21.92. Once again, Oahu reported the steepest drops in occupancy (down 88.7 percent) and RevPAR (down 93.5 percent). Its absolute occupancy level was just 9.7 percent. Boston reported the steepest ADR decline, down 60.5 percent.
New York City's occupancy was at 44.9 percent, up from 41 percent the prior week. The city also reported the highest group occupancy level in the top 25 markets for luxury and upper upscale classes at 27.6 percent, for a year-over-year increase of 75.9 percent. The remaining markets showed group occupancy declines of between 70 percent to 100 percent.
Though representative of leisure travel, weekend occupancy gains for certain submarkets, especially in warm-weather spots, were significant for the first weekend with eased Covid-19 restrictions in some states, according to STR. "Whether or not this becomes a trend remains to be seen, but the fact that there were people instantly willing to head out for leisure activity and stay in hotels is a positive sign for the industry," Freitag said.
Corpus Christi, Texas, reported the highest occupancy from the select group of submarkets for May 1-2 at 63.3 percent, up from 39.7 percent from the weekdays of April 26-30. Other Texas cities, including Galveston and Brownsville, along with the Florida cities of Panama City and Pensacola all reported occupancies in the 50 percent to 57 percent range, compared with weekday rates of 26 percent to 43 percent.
"We have maintained throughout this pandemic that the leisure segment would be the first to return," Freitag said. "It is just a matter of when."
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