STR: US hotel performance for April 2017

From HNN Newswire

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics during April 2017, according to data from STR.

In a year-over-year comparison with April 2016, the industry reported the following:
Occupancy: -0.7% to 67.5%
Average daily rate (ADR): +2.4% to US$126.26
Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +1.7% to US$85.19

“We saw the opposite of the previous month with performance negatively affected by the Easter calendar shift (March 2016 to April 2017),” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “Group occupancy in particular was down 12.5% year over year as meeting planners avoided the time around the holiday. Even with that decline in the Group segment and supply growth continuing around 2%, the absolute occupancy level was the second-highest for any April on record.”

Freitag noted that April 2017 exceeded expectations by continuing the industry’s run of consecutive months with year-over-year RevPAR growth. That streak is now 86 straight months.
Among the Top 25 Markets, Orlando, Florida, posted the largest increase in RevPAR (+17.6% to US$112.83), driven primarily by the month’s only double-digit rise in ADR (+10.0% to US$132.55). Occupancy in the market rose 6.9% to 85.1%.

“Orlando is obviously a popular destination market, so while many major markets reported negative results around Easter, Orlando saw a boost with Transient demand likely lifted by school breaks and family vacations.”

Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia, saw the largest increase in occupancy (+8.2% to 68.4%) and the only other double-digit lift in RevPAR (+11.6% to US$64.99).

Other top RevPAR increases were reported in Seattle, Washington (+8.4% to US$109.40); Anaheim/Santa Ana, California (+8.1% to US$122.85); and Phoenix, Arizona (+8.0% to US$111.26).
New Orleans, Louisiana, reported the steepest declines across the three key performance metrics. Occupancy fell 7.8% to 73.3%, ADR was down 12.4% to US$157.45 and RevPAR dropped 19.2% to US$115.43.
Houston, Texas, was the only other Top 25 Market to show a double-digit decrease in RevPAR (-13.5% to US$67.33).

“More than half of the Top 25 Markets experienced a RevPAR decline for the month, but that is not a surprise with the Easter shift,” Freitag said. “Overall, all other markets (RevPAR: +2.1%) outperformed the major markets (+0.8%). That also is not surprising given that supply growth is 100 basis points higher in the Top 25.”

Download the April 2017 U.S. hotel review here.