STR: YOY U.S. Occupancy Dipped in January for Third Time in Six Years

The average daily rate at U.S. hotels increased 2.8 percent year over year in January to $116.61, according to STR. Occupancy dipped 0.3 percent to 54 percent, only the third time that metric has decreased during the past 72 months. Among the top 25 markets, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Calif. saw the largest increases in ADR, 8.8 percent to $162.31, and in occupancy, 6.1 percent to 75.9 percent. Phoenix, suffering from tough comparisons after hosting the Super Bowl in 2015, reported a 10.8 percent ADR decrease to $140.96. New Orleans experienced the largest drop in occupancy, 8.1 percent to 59 percent. STR senior vice president for lodging insights Jan Freitag said January's ADR growth was driven largely by group business, as transient rate remained flat, though Winter Storm Jonas weakened group occupancy.