Room rates and hotel revenues showed strong growth for the third quarter of 2006, even with occupancy slightly down, according to results released by Smith Travel Research on Wednesday.
STR reported a 6.8 percent increase in the average room rate to $97.43 for the quarter, compared with the same period last year. Revenue per available room was up 6 percent to $66.71. Occupancy, meanwhile, dropped 0.7 percent to 68.5 percent for the quarter from last year's levels.
Marriott International already has reported even stronger gains in room rates and RevPAR for the quarter, with daily rates up 9.1 percent and RevPAR up 9.4 percent
(BTNonline, Oct. 20). Several individual public hotel chains, including Hilton and Starwood, will be reporting results over the next several days.
Even so, RevPAR growth had slowed compared with the past few quarters, according to Smith Travel Research president Mark Lomanno. The last quarter of 2005 was the highest fourth-quarter RevPAR growth seen in the nearly 20 years that STR has tracked data, but Lomanno said that likely would not be matched this year.
For the year so far, room rates are up 6.8 percent, RevPAR is up 7.9 percent and occupancy is up 1 percent. Smith Travel Research predicts the overall growth in 2006 RevPAR will be 7.9 percent, according to Lomanno.