Coming on the heels of another
downgraded projection for the U.S. hotel industry, STR's October U.S. performance
report showed year-over-year declines in three key measures. Occupancy was down
0.6 percent to 69.3 percent, average daily rate dropped 0.5 percent to $133.34
and revenue per available room declined 1.2 percent to $92.35. This was the
first time RevPAR declined at U.S. hotels in consecutive months since December
2009 and January 2010.
"We considered the three previous sub-0.5 percent
monthly declines in this record-setting expansion cycle as blips," said
STR SVP of consulting and analytics Carter Wilson. "With October's RevPAR
decrease of 1.2 percent, there's more evidence for a pronounced slowdown on the
horizon."
Group occupancy was down 8.6 percent year over year, due in
large part because of the Jewish holiday calendar shift from September 2018.
"With slower demand growth and the industry's first supply increase of at
least 2.1 percent since April 2010, there was obvious pressure on occupancy
levels and already fragile pricing confidence," Wilson added.
Among the top 25 markets, Anaheim/Santa Ana, California,
posted the largest jump in RevPAR, 6.1 percent. Washington, D.C., posted the
largest lift in ADR at 5.5 percent, which resulted in the second-largest
increase in RevPAR, 5.2 percent. Houston reported the largest rise in occupancy
at 5.3 percent.
Boston reported the steepest decline in RevPAR, 11.8
percent, and the largest drop in occupancy, 7.1 percent. New Orleans reported
the steepest ADR decline, 5.7 percent, and the only other double-digit percentage
decline in RevPAR at 10.4 percent.
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