September occupancy for U.S. hotels declined 0.9 percent year over year to 67.4 percent, according to STR, while revenue per available room dropped 0.3 percent to $88.91. Only average daily rate grew, though by just 0.6 percent to $131.93. "The second month this year with a negative result points to a continued slowdown for the U.S. hotel industry," said STR SVP of lodging insights Jan Freitag. "Demand only grew 1.2 percent, not strong enough to overcome a 2 percent increase in supply, so occupancy declined for the third time this year."
Only the luxury and upper-upscale segments reported positive RevPAR. Luxury grew 2.7 percent and upper-upscale 0.9 percent. During the current 115-month cycle, RevPAR also declined year over year in June of this year and in September 2018. Among the 25 markets with the most rooms, New Orleans registered the largest rise in RevPAR, 11.8 percent, due primarily to the highest rise in occupancy, 9.2 percent. Washington, D.C., reported the biggest lift in ADR, 7.6 percent. Orlando saw the only double-digit decline in RevPAR, 11.9 percent, due to the largest drop in occupancy, 9 percent. Miami registered the steepest decline in ADR, 4.3 percent, and the second-largest decline in each occupancy, 4.7 percent, and RevPAR, 8.8 percent.
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